DYK that @noaa.gov estimates how much rainfall you would probably need in order to end drought?

www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monit...

A blossoming crabapple tree with snow

a clash of seasons 🌸🌨️ #cowx

Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest, by Henri Rousseau, 1905, via @garrett_TFE

CO Monthly Climate Summary

March 2026 rewrote the record books for early-spring warmth in Colorado. It was warmer than most Aprils. Hundreds of temperature records were set across the state, including a new March record of 99°F. The heat was prolonged, and it was also very dry. Read more in our monthly state climate summary.👇

NWP at its greatest.

My son got a 3D Printer 15 months ago and I thought "worthless toy". Then my son makes a lithopane of the H-Triple-R for May 20th and now tears are in my eyes.

Snowy Range Mountains in Wyoming 🙂

Looking up at red arches in Arches NP with a clear sky in the background

Mountains with a lake and pine trees in the foreground. It is morning and there is a cloudless sky

A rainbow in front of dark storm clouds with a grassy field in the foreground

Snow-capped mountains with a small lake and grassy field in the foreground. Puffy clouds dot a sunny sky above

Today was a hard day. I’m finding peace by looking back at sunnier days — hope these find your timeline well ❤️

White House releases FY27 budget proposal, continuing plan of massive cuts to Earth science, including elimination of NOAA Research NOAA grant data shows agency awarding grants at a much slower rate than previous years, likely showing administration strategy to reduce scientific spending through budget execution

News: WH released proposed FY27 budget, continuing to push plan to eliminate NOAA Research and massively cut Earth sciences - while NOAA grant data for FY2026 shows only 7 new grants so far compared to 379 in FY2025, further evidence of curtailed science budget execution. tinyurl.com/5e3ptub2

Mountain snowpack should be peaking around now. This year, it's almost gone - Colorado Climate Blog We’ve reached April 1, which is a key date in assessing where things stand with snow in the mountains, which then informs the likely water supply in streams and rivers later in the spring and summer. ...

Mountain snowpack in Colorado should be peaking around now. This year, it's almost gone.

New blog post that shows how it is now clear that this is the worst snowpack year on record for Colorado, following the record-shattering March warmth. 1/

Some more from Donner Pass today:

Update: the one record we had not yet broken this month was the all-time March record for Colorado (96°F at Holly in 1907), but that record will also fall. Stations at Springfield and Walsh in SE CO reached 97°F today. It's possible other stations that report daily will show even higher values #cowx

54° for an overnight low in Denver is stupid absurd. Not only is that our warmest March low by 6°, it’s almost our warmest April low as well.

#COwx

Colorado statewide snowpack graphic, illustrating the 2026 snowpack relative to historical data. The 2026 data shows a steep drop in snow water equivalent over the past week.

Last week's record-setting heat took a major toll on Colorado's snowpack (which was already in bad shape). We're currently sitting at 44% of average with ~2 weeks to go until our average peak. Little to no precipitation is expected over the next 7 days. #cowx

abhorrent latent heat fluxes happening rn

Weather station observations showing low humidity

crispy

Map of current CoAgMET temperatures on the afternoon of March 19, 2026. They are far above average for mid-March across the entire state. From https://coagmet.colostate.edu/

“March”

Map of U.S., from coolwx.com, showing locations currently experiencing record-breaking temperatures. There are countless such locations in the Western U.S., with hundreds of red dots (locations breaking daily record highs) and many dozens of pink dots (locations breaking March monthly record highs). The region of record heat extends from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains, and from Canada to Mexico.

Well, if yesterday's map was ridiculous, I'm running out of superlatives to characterize today's. Countless locations from Pacific Coast to Great Plains are currently experiencing all-time record March warmth, w/ some locations approaching/exceeding April (or even May) records.

Map of U.S., from coolwx.com, showing locations currently experiencing record-breaking temperatures. There are countless such locations in the Western U.S., with hundreds of red dots (locations breaking daily record highs) and dozens of pink dots (locations breaking March monthly record highs). The region of record heat extends from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains, and from Canada to Mexico.

Fair to say that the Western U.S. heatwave has reached record-shattering status, with dozens of locations breaking all-time March monthly heat records & some now approaching *April* records. Swath of record heat extends clear from Pacific to Great Plains, & from Canada to Mexico.

An extreme early-season heat wave could see temperatures 20-30 degrees above average and record temperatures broken by 10 or more degrees today and tomorrow across the Desert Southwest. Jumping right into summer-like heat puts vulnerable populations at risk. Stay cool at www.weather.gov/safety/heat

Best of SNL: El Niño (Chris Farley) YouTube video by President Polo

🧵Happy St. Patrick's day! What better way to celebrate than talking about ENSO? Specifically, let's talk about El Nino because that hype-train is leaving the station, and the ENSO Blog at Climate[.gov] is no longer around to provide expert context. 😡
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwyU...

The Morrill Fire in Nebraska has killed 1 and consumed 549,000 acres with 0% containment. This is more than 10% of the entire area burned by U.S. wildfires in 2025, and makes it one of the 20 largest fires in U.S. history. Sunday forecast is grim: High Wind Warning, 25-35 mph winds, gusting to 50.

a lot has already been written about the heat wave next week, including @weatherwest.bsky.social’s posts here. But it is hard to describe how truly outlandish the forecast is for next week. This is looking to be so far outside of anything that’s been observed before in March in the western US.

NWS forecast for Fort Collins currently calling for a Thursday high temp near 90F next week. #cowx

Screenshot of air quality measurements from sensors around CO, NE, and surrounding states. High values focused over eastern CO and NE panhandle. Image taken from purpleair.com

Screenshot of Fort Collins/Loveland area sensors. One sensor selected from Fort Collins with a current Air Quality Index of 367. Graph showing increase at sensor overnight and morning. Text on tooltip says ">300: Health warning of emergency conditions: everyone is more likely to be affected with 24 hours of exposure." Screenshot taken from purpleair.com

Air quality in northeast and southeast CO and the NE panhandle is ridiculously poor due to the wildfire near Lake McConaughy in NE. Widespread PM2.5 values in excess of 300, which is considered a "health warning of emergency conditions" for all populations.

Large tree down with caution tape

Large tree down with caution tape. A car is beneath it

Large tree down with caution tape

Large trees down on CSU’s campus from today’s high winds #cowx

Trucks

Five blown over trucks and one too scared to move

CSU closed March 13 Colorado State University is closed March 13. All in-person, hybrid and remote classes and operations, including meetings and work functions, are canceled for all Larimer County campuses. CSU crews are assessing damage after high winds in the Fort Collins area, with damaged trees the primary concern.

wow, I don’t recall CSU ever having a wind damage closure before

In case you missed it, the viral hail report in Kankakee, Illinois that was challenging the record for largest recorded hailstone ever (8 inches - Vivian, SD) is gone

However, Illinois does have a new state-record hailstone (also from Kankakee) with a preliminary maximum size of 6.14 inches

90 mph wind gust at the Cheyenne Wyoming ASOS (78kts) just set the all-time wind speed record at KCYS! #wywx #wind

Extraordinary and prolonged March heatwave to break records and decimate mountain snowpack across U.S. Southwest, including much of California - Weather West March 11, 2026 - Daniel Swain - "Winter" 2025-2026 warmest on record across most of Western U.S., including SoCal & Sierra Nevada Well, now it's official: Winter (Dec-Feb) 2025-2026 was the warmest on record across the majority of the American West, and a top-3 warmest winter nearly everywhere that it didn't quite cinch the record. That includes nearly all of the Colorado #

Weather West update on a prolonged and very likely record-breaking March heatwave in the western U.S. that will begin Thursday in some areas & actually not reach its peak for another 7-10 days in some spots. This forecast is truly extraordinary for March.