Colorado Is Now Drought-Free And Even More Snow On The Way

DENVER (CBS4) - A report released this week from the US Drought Monitor shows Colorado is now 99.99% drought-free. According to the Colorado Climate Center in Fort Collins this is the lowest coverage of drought in our state since the US Drought Monitor was established in 2000. The previous low was 99.87% drought-free in May 2001.

The dramatic improvement is thanks to an active jet stream pattern that set up over Colorado during the middle of February. It brought a parade of storm systems across the region through early March that dropped heavy snow and created a record cycle of avalanches.

April and May featured more of the same with a predominantly wetter-than-normal and cooler-than-normal pattern and thus here we are at the end of May with an unusually high mountain snowpack for this time of year.

Looking ahead the models show potential for another chilly and wet storm to move into Colorado early next week and that could mean more heavy, wet snow for locations above 9,000 feet in the high country.