Drought — Southwestern San Juan Mountains, Colorado

2025-10-01 to 2025-10-31 · Southwestern 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 10% of Colorado Zone 019 - Southwestern San Juan Mountains. Severe (D2) Drought conditions covered 70% of the zone, and the remaining 20% were under Moderate (D1) Drought conditions. With the 10/7 Drought Monitor update, coverage of Severe (D2) Drought conditions reduced to 50% of the zone, and coverage of Moderate (D1) Drought increased to 40% of the zone. Coverage of Extreme (D3) Drought remained unchanged. Significant improvements were noted with the 10/14 update. Extreme (D3) Drought and Severe (D2) Drought were completely removed, and areas of Abnormally Dry (D0) and Drought Free conditions were introduced. Moderate (D1) conditions now covered 15% of the zone, with 60% of the zone under Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions, and the remaining 25% Drought Free. With the 10/21 update, Moderate (D1) Drought was completely removed, and the coverage of Abnormally Dry (D0) conditions was reduced to 20%. The remaining 80% of the zone was now Drought Free. No significant changes were noted from this point through the end of the month.

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 1296838. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.