December 6, 2021 by Anna Jorstad: Staff Writer
It is crazy to think that Hawaii’s volcano has snow on it and Denver is still waiting to see when they will experience their first measurable snow this winter. There is no exact reasoning for what is occurring but scientists have said that we could be experiencing a La Niña climate. La Niña means little girl in Spanish and can sometimes be referred to as “a cold event.” In the south, the winter is warmer and more likely to see a drought, and in the east, they see a colder and wetter winter. It is strange that Denver is expecting to have a dry winter because at the start of the year it was one of Denver’s wettest years on record. In September, the monsoon disappeared, drying up everything in Denver and little to no moisture has occurred since then.
After July 1, 2021, Denver has seen 1.03 inches of precipitation, and normally by this time there would have been 6 inches of precipitation. This is crazy to think that in about 6 months Denver has only had 1 inch of precipitation and normally we should be experiencing 6 times that amount. Denver is also approaching a record that was set back in 1887 where there was no consecutive precipitation for 235 days. With this little to no snow for the season ski areas were forced to delay the start of open because they did not have enough. In order to open us the ski areas, the resorts are having to create fake snow in order for it to be safe for skiers. In the past, most ski resorts are able to open around the start of November, this year some were unable to open until after Thanksgiving becasue of the drought.
With the little to no snow fall the Colorado is experiencing this year, it is going to effect the amount of snow melt and what flows into the rivers into toher states. This will affect farms and the plants that they plan to grow because they will be unable to have a steady supply of water form the rivers. Overall, scientist have been looking closely at the records that Colorado has came near due to the La Niña climate change. In the upcoming weeks Denver is expected to experience some snow but weather forcaster are unsure if it will be measurable.