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Crestone
Weather Center MONTHLY CLIMATOLOGICAL SUMMARY FOR CRESTONE, CO (For Daily Climatological Stats, go here) 2010
*Up until Dec 31. ** Reached twice, first on
November 25, and then again on December 31. Crestone Weather Notes For 2010 Nine straight days of freezing fog recorded between January 27 and February 4, with the last five days of January socked in most of the morning and evening hours and in some locations, all day long. Record low temperature set for the day on February 23 at -3.6� (-4�), old record of -2� was set in 1996. The .97 inches of precipitation recorded in February was the third most ever for the month, and the 15.3 inches of snow was the fourth highest snow total ever recorded for February. The 9.5 inches of snow that fell on March 8 was a record snowfall for that day. Windy day on March 14, with a top wind gust of 44 MPH recorded, the strongest gust of wind here since May 2008, causes minor damage around town. Some reports of 50 MPH plus wind gusts came in from the Grants. A cold front hits at 10:25 am on March 19, with the temperature dropping from 34� to 21� in about 30 minutes. A mini snowstorm with blowing snow at noon caused near whiteout conditions for about an hour. Record low temperature reached on March 20 at 0.2�, breaking the old record of 4�, set in 1998. With 1.44 inch of precip, and 18.9 inches of snow, these readings were both the fifth wettest, and fifth snowiest March on record. On April 5 the low temperature (34�) never went below freezing. This marked the first time Crestone did not drop below freezing in a 24 hour period since October 19, 2009. The first 6 days of April start off very windy. On April 5 (at 520 PM), a top wind gust of 52 MPH was recorded at our weather station. This is the highest recorded gust of wind ever recorded in Crestone (although wind speed has only been recorded here since November of 2002). Reports of 60+ MPH gusts came in from the Grants on this same day. April 12 marked the first rainfall of the year - be it only a trace, at our weather station. However, heavy rain was reported on the same day just 2 miles south of the station. On April 16 the first measurable rainfall of the year occurred. Second mini dust storm of the year and month hits on April 28, which was a very windy day. Yet April 29 is even more windier, with a 24 hour average wind speed of 15 MPH, along with some more dust and even stronger winds out in the valley and above 10,000 feet in the mountains. The high temperature in April only reach 68�, making it only the fifth time since 1982 that a reading of 70� or higher wasn't reach in April, and the first time this has happened since April, 1997. April turned out to be the windiest month ever for average speed in Crestone, be it that wind speed has only been measured in Crestone since November of 2002. May also turns out very windy, with a wind gust of 50 MPH May 11, and then a top wind gust of 51 MPH on May 22. The next morning saw blowing dust, and a wind gust of 62 MPH was recorded at the Crestone Charter School, about 4 miles west of our weather station. On May 25, a record low of 25.9� was reached in the early morning hours. May saw a total of 9 days where the afternoon humidity reading was below 10%, with a reading of 5% on May 25 being the lowest reading of the month. May became the windiest month ever for average speed in Crestone, breaking the record set just set in April (see above). May also turned out to be the fifth driest May ever on record. On June 9 a record high temperature was reached with a reading of 88.7�, breaking the old mark of 87�, set in 2002. Also on this day a humidity reading of 4% was recorded, making this the driest day so far in 2010. All of Crestone experienced a smoky late afternoon and evening on June 23 from a forest fire (Medano Fire) burning 19 miles southeast of town at the Great Sand Dunes National Park A early evening thunderstorm on June 28 left .15" of precipitation in the rain gauge, not a whole lot, but this was the first significant rainfall since May14, and only the second significant precip event since April 23 when 5.4" of snow fell. Humidity wise, June was one of the driest months Crestone has seen in years, with 9 days in a row (June 16 thru 24) with afternoon humidity readings below 10% with 4 straight days (June 18 to 21) with afternoon humidity readings at or below 5%, including a 4% humidity reading on June 20, tied with June 9 for the driest day of the year so far. All told, there were 12 days in June where the humidy reading was under 10%. Precip wise, this June was tied for the sixth driest June on record. Record high temperature tied on July 16 at 92�, along with a humidity reading of 4% in the afternoon. For the first time since 2005, Crestone experiences more than 2 days in a row of 90 degree temperatures, with 6 days straight days of 90 plus readings from July 15 till July 20. Record high low of 59.1� shatteres the old record for July 20 of 56�. This reading also ties for fourth place for the warmest ever highest low recorded. The warmest overnight reading ever was 63�, followed by two readings of 60�... Also on July 20, more smoke covers town in the late afternoon from the still burning Mendio fire. Precip wise, July ended up being the forth driest July ever, with only .87" of rain falling. 0.68" of rain and hail fell in just 10 minutes time on Aug 5, starting at 2:25pm. It ended up raining only for about another 30 minutes afterwards and that (.09") was the only other precip that came down for the day. Yet the total of .77" total precip that fell in less than an hour's time set a record for the entire date for total precip (old record was .38", set in 1999). 5% humidity reading in the afternoon on Labor Day, Sept 6. This year marked the warmest September on record, along with 5 record high temperatures recorded. The high temperature of 82° on September 18, tied the record for the day first set in 2005, then the next day, on September 19, the record high temp was broken with a reading of 83º, the old mark was 82º, set in 1984. Then for the last week of the month, we saw three days in a row with record highs broken or tied: On Sept 27 it reached 82�, tying the old record first set in 2001. Sept 28 saw a new record high of 83�, breaking the old mark of 82�, set in 1998. Then on September 29 another new record was reached at 83�, the old record was 82�, set in 2001. October started off as September ended, unseasonably warm. The high temperature on October 1 of 80.1�, not only broke the record for the day (old record was 79�), it was the warmest temperature reading ever in October for Crestone and the first time the high temperature reached the 80s in the month. The first trace of snow reported on October 22 was the latest date for snow to fall in any new snow season (the new snow season starts each year on July 1). Two interesting notes about the 1.7" of snow that fell on November 21. Frist, this was the second longest into the new snow season that Crestone had gone before the first inch of snow fell. The latest date remains as December 6,1989. This 1.7" of snow was also the first time it snowed on November 21 in 27 years of record keeping, and that was the latest date of the calendar year with no snow ever recorded. Now November 8 is latest date and is also now the only day in November to never see measurable snow accumulate. A record low for the date was reached on November 25 when the temperature fell to -8.7� (or -9�). The old record was -2�, set in 2007. A record high low temperature was tied on December 10 when the overnight low temperature only fell to 32�. A record high temperature was tied on December 14 at 50.2�. An all time record high low temperature for Crestone in December was set on December 20 when the temperature only went down to 36�, smashing the old record for the date of 27�, and replacing the old all time record for the month, which was 34�. This reading of 36� was also only the third time the temperature stayed above freezing for a 24 hour period in December since records were first kept 27 years ago. But that fact would change as the week went on, as this would occur again... Another record high low was set on December 21, this time the reading was 32�, easily surpassing the old record of 21�. Then again the next day, on December 22, another record high low was set when this time the temperature only went down to 33�, surpassing the old record for the date of 25�. Finally, on December 23, and for the fourth day in a row, Crestone recorded one last record high low temperature reading, this time the temperature only dropped down to 31�, breaking the old record of 27�. For these 4 days, Crestone averaged a low temperature of 33�, when on average the low temp should be in the single digits this time of year. A record low for the date was tied on December 31 when the thermometer dropped to -9�. The record was first set in 1982. December 2010 ended up being the warmest December ever record, going back to 1982, the first year weather records were kept in Crestone.
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