National Weather Service, Precipitation, Temperature and Drought Update

The latest USDA Colorado Crop Report, as of September 22, 2011, indicates some improvement in conditions, with 54% of top soil moisture across the state rated as short or very short, compared to 70% last week and 79% at this same time last year. 

Subsoil moisture across Colorado also showed slight improvements with 57% rated at short or very short, compared to 62% last week, but continues to trail last year at this time when only 49% of subsoil moisture was rated short or very short. 

CPC soil moisture calculations indicate some improvement across the region, though continue to indicate deficiencies of 20 to locally 100 millimeters (1/2 inch to 4 inches)…with the worst conditions depicted across extreme southeastern Colorado. 

The Colorado Crop Report continues to indicate that pasture and range feed conditions remain quite variable across the state with rating of very poor to good conditions.  The poorest conditions remain across southern regions of the state. 

The Pueblo National Weather Service issued the area precipitation reports for southeastern Colorado for the month of September.  Amounts are in inches, comparing this year to September 2010. 

                                2011                       2010 

Eads                       0.45                        0.63
Haswell                 0.51                        0.38
J.M. Dam               0.71                        0.50
La Junta                 0.54                        0.43
Lamar                    0.90                        0.49
Las Animas           0.47                       0.84
Walsh                    0.32                       1.79