Extreme weather Colorado

snow highlights rugged mountains, urban , agricultural landscapes of colorado plains.

extreme weather changes common in colorado, although majority of extreme weather occurs in least populated areas of state. thunderstorms common east of continental divide in spring , summer, yet brief. hail common sight in mountains east of divide , in northwest part of state. eastern plains have had of biggest hail storms in north america.

the eastern plains part of extreme western portion of tornado alley; damaging tornadoes in eastern plains include 1990 limon f3 tornado , 2008 windsor ef3 tornado, devastated small town. plains susceptible occasional floods, caused both thunderstorms , rapid melting of snow in mountains during warm weather. notable examples include big thompson river flooding of 1976 , 2013 colorado floods. denver s record in 1901 number of consecutive days above 90 °f (32 °c) broken during summer of 2008. new record of 24 consecutive days surpassed previous record week.

much of colorado dry state averaging 17 inches (430 millimetres) of precipitation per year statewide , experiences time when portion of state not in degree of drought. lack of precipitation contributes severity of wildfires in state, such hayman fire, 1 of largest wildfires in american history, , fourmile canyon fire of 2010, until waldo canyon fire , high park fire of june 2012, , black forest fire of june 2013, destructive wildfire in colorado s recorded history.

however, of mountainous regions of colorado receive huge amount of moisture winter snowfalls. spring melts of these snows cause great waterflows in yampa river, colorado river, rio grande, arkansas river, north platte river, , south platte river.

the yampa river, high overlook

water flowing out of colorado rocky mountains significant source of water farms, towns, , cities of southwest states of new mexico, arizona, utah, , nevada, midwest, such nebraska , kansas, , southern states of oklahoma , texas. significant amount of water diverted use in california; (formerly naturally , consistently), flow of water reaches northern mexico.