Colorado Weather: Drought Just Worsened 10% In One Week With No Moisture In Sight

DENVER (CBS4) - A lack of snow in most of Colorado has caused the biggest one week jump in drought conditions since July 2020. That was the summer with the most active wildfire season in state history.

A week ago, 78% of Colorado had at least moderate drought. Now 88% of the state is experiencing at least moderate drought and that percentage is expected to climb even higher next week considering there is virtually no moisture in the forecast through December 3 at the earliest.

For the Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins areas, moderate drought turned to severe drought just before Halloween. And considering the current precipitation deficient along the Front Range, it's possible extreme drought could soon develop for at least a few areas along the I-25 urban corridor.

As of Thursday night, Denver is 11.5 inches below normal with snow for the season. The city has already broken the record for the latest snow on record and is more than 5 weeks past the average first snowfall which is October 18th.

It's also been 219 days since it last snowed in Denver on April 21st. That is long enough to tie with 1886 for the fourth longest no-snow streak in the city.

And the streak is guaranteed to get longer with zero snow in the forecast almost anywhere in the state through next week.