Hey, thanks so much for
joining us here on 9 News Plus.
I'm yours, Chris Bianchi.
So the question I keep getting
that us here at 9 News weather e
keep getting is why has it beeno
darn rainy lately and what's bed
it and will it end anytime soon?
So I'm going to break that all down for you.
But First things first,
let's take a look at just how
much rain we've actually seen.
Over the last few days,
over the last few weeks,
over the last few months,
so far this month here in Denve,
as of Wednesday, June the 7th,
we picked up about two inches,
a little less than two inches wh
of rainfall so far this month.
That's basically our full June average.
We normally average about two
inches of rain in our average J.
And for what it's worth,
June is one of our 3 W months
of the year here in Denver,
so here in the high desert.
We're not used to getting a ton of rainfall,
obviously,
and we're certainly not used
to getting this kind of water
in this short of a time span.
And then of course, we go back to last month.
Denver had its 11th wettest monh
ever recorded, its fourth wettest May.
We picked up over 5 1/2 inches
worth of rainfall last month al.
It was a stunningly wet May for
us across the Front Range.
May on average is our wettest
month of the year by a little b,
so it's not that common that we.
Even within the wettest month of
the year that we get 5 1/2 inchs
worth of rainfall,
and if you kind of pull it all together,
over the last six weeks,
we've picked up more than half
of our typical annual rainfall
here along the Front Range.
So the question is,
why have we been seeing so much
rain and so much wet weather
over the last little while?
Here's the overall answer.
This has been the pattern
we've been locked into.
For quite some time.
The big key on this map,
it's that H at the top of your screen here.
That is an area of high pressure
that just does not want to move.
The best way to think about it is that
this is that area of high presse
is like if you took an 18 Wheel,
you took a truck and you parkedt
in the middle of I-25 and it wod
create this huge backlog, right?
If you park that 18 Wheeler in
the middle of I-25 for six hour,
that's going to create all sort.
Downwind effects,
it would lead to traffic going
back miles and miles and miles
and that's essentially the set p
that we've got right now because
that area of low pressure that's
centered over the Southwestern
United States that can't move ul
that area of high pressure does.
Now the Northern Hemisphere
and at least where we are
here in the Northern Hemisphere,
our general air pattern,
it moves from West to east.
So as long as you got that blocking area,
high pressure that just wants
to sit and spin and hang out.
That area of low pressure over
the Southwest can't move and wht
that means for us here along the
Front Range is persistent SE flw
coming out of the Gulf of Mexic.
That's the one We keep getting
these tropical downpours,
these periodic areas low pressue
come out of it and and means
we're getting into the mountains
a lot of Pacific moisture as we.
So this is the overall setup
and the main reason.
Why we've seen so much wet weather over
the last few weeks in the last few months.
Last month bit of a difference
that we had that big mid-May stm
that brought about four 4 1/2
inches worth of rainfall.
That was due to a slow moving a,
low pressure,
but again same mechanisms in pl,
just a slow moving.
Area of low pressure and just
a couple of systems that really
just don't seem to want to move.
Couple bits of speculation about
this as well is that we've had a
couple of really strong typhoons
out over the Pacific Ocean.
And when you get a big strong
typhoon out over the Pacific Oc,
it often really disrupts the jet stream.
And when you get that,
it's think about taking a jump e
and how when you kind of swivel,
it creates a little wave.
That eventually moves on down.
Same idea with a typhoon.
If you get a big disrupting
storm out in the Pacific Ocean,
it creates that little bit of ae
that affects weather all across the globe.
And so there's some theories,
and I think that's the best way to put it,
theories that big typhoon
out over the Pacific,
plus we're transitioning
from a La Nina to an El Nino.
A couple of different reasons wy
we may be getting that area of h
pressure stuck, but for what it's worth,
that is certainly the main reasn
why we've been so wet.
And so that's what.
This is,
this is as of Wednesday,
SE flow out of the Gulf of Mexio
and that keeps all that moisture
screaming out of the Gulf of Meo
and keeping us soggy and wet.
And that pattern here, folks.
It's going to stick around for
really the foreseeable future,
though there are some hints that
by the middle of next week,
that'd be Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday of next week,
that things finally start to get
a bit more quote UN quote norma.
But right now it looks like it's going
to stay really soggy and with d.
Chances for showers and storms d
also within these showers and storms,
a higher chance of A getting thm
and B more water within those
storms because we're getting ths
moisture out of the Gulf of Mex.
This is tropical moisture.
So these are not our typical
mom and pop afternoon showers and storms
that we get here along the Front Range,
our garden variety 3-4 o'clock, you know,
1520 minutes about it being about a boom,
you got those storms, they're out of here.
That's not these kinds of storm.
These are slow moving storms that will sit.
And dump lots of water.
They don't move quickly,
so that means you can get two even 3 hours
with a heavy rainfall over the same area.
And again it is tropical downpos
and that's why we've been seeing this.
And so as we get into especially
Sunday for the weekend ahead,
it looks really wet once again with more
heavy rainfall and more cloud cover force.
But the good news is.
As we look at the Drought Monit,
this was markedly different at
the start of the calendar year.
Even 2-3 months ago,
this was really,
really different.
We had at one point about half f
Colorado under some form of dro.
Now we've got barely 6% of it
and that's going to change as
we have your Thursday as well.
So Long story short here, folks,
we've just been locked in this
persistent pattern for quite some time,
mostly thanks to this blocking ,
high pressure and the kind of
domino effect that stems.
From that.
So we've been tracking
that for a little while,
but as we head through the next few days,
that pattern is going to stay in
place with the note that we will
probably be getting some relief
over the middle of sometime,
middle of next week and then we
transition to more of a monsoon season,
very different mechanism of
getting wet weather.
So I know it's felt like this for some time,
but this will probably break on
up as we head over the next few
days and over the next few week.
So we'll keep you posted.
With the latest on that,
but once again,
meteorologist Chris Bianchi with
that for you here on 9 News Plus
and thanks again for joining us.