{"id":6527,"date":"2004-08-20T17:39:55","date_gmt":"2004-08-21T00:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/08\/20\/the-drought-is-over-kinda.html"},"modified":"2014-11-23T08:28:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-23T15:28:30","slug":"the_drought_is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/20\/the_drought_is.html","title":{"rendered":"The drought is over … kinda"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a meteorological standpoint, the drought which has led to Denver-area water restrictions is over<\/a>. Precipitation levels this year are at or above average (thanks to the multi-inches storm this past week.<\/p>\n

From a hydrological standpoint, though, the malady lingers on — in terms of below-average reservoirs. The recent rain didn’t help with that so much, since Denver’s water reservoirs are mostly in the mountains, where the rain didn’t fall as much. Though, conversely, water demand should be a lot lower for a few weeks, due to how wet the ground now is. <\/p>\n

Just how much water fell on Denver Wednesday? Nolan Doesken, a research climatologist at Colorado State University, calculated it at about 6.8 billion gallons – or nearly 21,000 acre-feet, about 7.5 percent of what Denver Water customers use per year. But, of course, local utilities can’t begin to capture all that water. Most of it ends up gushing down the South Platte River, where downstream farmers will appreciate it the most.
\nAs big as the storm was, it alone hasn’t lifted Denver out of its meteorological drought. Instead, it was just another contribution – albeit a big one – from Mother Nature during a blessedly rainy, cool summer. “We’re the exact opposite from 2002, when it was hot and dry,” said state climatologist Roger Pielke. “Now, we’re wet and cool.”<\/p>\n

It’s certainly been cooler than normal this summer, and wetter in terms of precipitation (and humidity). Which has been kind of nice, that’s for sure.<\/p>\n

Now for a nice snowy winter, and we should be in great shape for next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a meteorological standpoint, the drought which has led to Denver-area water restrictions is over. Precipitation levels this year are at or above average (thanks to the multi-inches storm this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[748,749],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weather-and-climate-change","category-weather-and-seasons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5582,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/18\/drought_update.html","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":0},"title":"Drought update","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Feb-04 7:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"So far, so good ... sort of ... with drought stuff here in Colorado. Denver Water expects its drought-stricken reservoirs to reach 92 percent of capacity this summer if spring...","rel":"","context":"In "Weather (mine)"","block_context":{"text":"Weather (mine)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/weather-and-seasons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":268,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/15\/is_the_glass_tw.html","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":1},"title":"Is the glass two-thirds full, or a third empty?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-May-03 4:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We've had enough late-season moisture that Denver Water is looking at lifting usage surcharges they just finished imposing. But even with full rivers at the moment, most reservoirs statewide will...","rel":"","context":"In "Weather (mine)"","block_context":{"text":"Weather (mine)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/weather-and-seasons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5909,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/06\/30\/water_water_wel.html","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":2},"title":"Water, water … well, not quite as nowhere as before","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 30-Jun-04 9:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks of rainy weather (all part of the Grand Air Conditioning Conspiracy) has boosted the reservoirs in the area, leading Denver Water to add a third watering...","rel":"","context":"In "Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science\/weather-and-climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4713,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/15\/opening_the_tap.html","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":3},"title":"Opening the tap a bit","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Jul-03 10:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Huzzah and hey-nonny-nonny! Denver Water is giving us a third day of watering each week. Folks in my address cohort will be able to water Wednesday, Saturday, and now Monday...","rel":"","context":"In "Weather (mine)"","block_context":{"text":"Weather (mine)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/weather-and-seasons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5276,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/14\/droughtful.html","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":4},"title":"Droughtful","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Apr-04 7:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite a heavier-than-average April, we're still running below normal (\"normal\" in the long view, that is), so we can expect further water restrictions this year in Denver. The utility is...","rel":"","context":"In "Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science\/weather-and-climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":334,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/01\/how_dry_i_still.html","url_meta":{"origin":6527,"position":5},"title":"How dry I (still) am","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-May-03 7:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"The state-wide drought may be kinda-sorta over, but there's still a lot of drought out there -- and we're still in dryer than normal conditions, the snow and rain of...","rel":"","context":"In "Home Improvement"","block_context":{"text":"Home Improvement","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/home-improvement"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48480,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6527\/revisions\/48480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}