Our Climate— Where Is It Taking Us?
Nolan J. Doesken1
1Colorado State Climatologist (retired)
The Colorado Climate Center carefully tracks many key indicators of Colorado’s varied and diverse climate. This talk will describe some of the main drivers of Colorado’s climate and then show how temperatures, precipitation, snowpack and streamflow have tracked over the past 100+ years. Projecting into the future, we remain on a path towards a warmer Colorado into the next several decades. Precipitation, while more variable and less predictable, is likely to be unable to keep up with the evaporative demand of the landscape leading to potential downward trends in available streamflow and surface water in the rivers and streams of the Southwest. Nolan will end his presentation with his traditional appeal for help monitoring local variations in precipitation by participating in CoCoRaHS – the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network.