Drought — Northwestern San Juan Mountains, Colorado

2025-10-01 to 2025-10-31 · Northwestern San Juan Mountains, Colorado

Event narrative

At the beginning of the month of October, the US Drought Monitor analyzed an area of Extreme (D3) Drought as covering roughly 15% of Colorado Zone 018 - Northwestern San Juan Mountains. Severe (D2) Drought conditions covered 75% of the zone, while the remaining 10% was under Moderate (D1) Drought conditions. With the 10/14 Drought Monitor update, significant improvements were noted. Extreme (D3) Drought conditions were completely removed and area of Abnormally Dry (D0) and Drought Free were introduced. Severe (D2) Drought covered 15% of the zone, Moderate (D1) Drought covered 70% of the zone, Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions covered 10% of the zone, and the remaining 5% was Drought Free. With the 10/21 update, the coverage of Severe (D2) Drought remained unchanged, but the coverage of Moderate (D1) Drought was reduced to 30% of the zone. Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions coverage increased to 40% of the zone, and 15% of the zone was now Drought Free. From this point through the end of the month, no significant changes in conditions were noted.

Wider weather episode

A dry end to September and a dry start to October kept drought conditions consistent across much of eastern Utah and western Colorado at the start of the month. However, the arrival of deep tropical moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storms Priscilla and Raymond helped to substantially improve drought conditions, especially across southwest Colorado. In this region, drought was completely eradicated. Only portions of northeast Utah and northwest Colorado, where the deep tropical moisture did not reach, saw drought conditions persist more or less unchanged.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1296837. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.