NCDC: Climate of 2003 - January

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Climate of 2003 - January
Colorado Drought

National Climatic Data Center, 13 February 2003

January marked the third consecutive month with drier-than-normal conditions, statewide, for Colorado. The extreme dryness of the last 12 months has resulted in the driest February-January in the 109-year record for the state.

As noted by the Colorado state climatologist (Dr. Roger Pielke Sr.),

Most of the Colorado monitoring sites continued to show a second year of serious drought by the end of January 2003. Along with already depleted reservoirs, the state is more vulnerable to drought this year than we were last year at this time.
Additional information can be found at http://climate.atmos.colostate.edu/coloradoaccumulated.shtml

Statewide Precipitation Ranks
for Colorado , 2002-2003

Period	Rank
Jan	8^th driest
Dec-Jan	5^th driest
Nov-Jan	11^th driest
Oct-Jan	28^th driest
Sep-Jan	49^th wettest ( 60^th driest)
Aug-Jan	43^rd driest
Jul-Jan	21^st driest
Jun-Jan	14^th driest
May-Jan	5^th driest
Apr-Jan	3^rd driest
Mar-Jan	3^rd driest
Feb-Jan	1^st driest

Colorado statewide precipitation departures, January 1998 - present

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Colorado statewide Palmer Z Index, January 1998 - present

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Colorado statewide precipitation, January 1895-2003

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Colorado statewide Palmer Hydrological Drought Index, January 1900 - January 2003

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NCDC / Clim. Monitoring / Climate-2003 / Jan / U.S. Regional Drought / Search / Help

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2003/jan/st005dv00pcp200301.html
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Last Updated Friday, 18-Nov-2005 14:11:57 EST by Richard.Heim@noaa.gov
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