Crestone Weather Notes For 2017

A record low high temperature was set on, January 7, at 14�, breaking the old record, which was 19�, set first in 1991, and then again in 2014. Then there was also a new record low temperature for the date set at -11�, breaking the old record of -9�, set back in 1997.

On January 16, the Crestone-Baca Weather Station set a new record for precipitation falling on the date, when the snow melted down came to .34". The old record of .26" was set in 1987.

Three record low temperatures were reached on 2 consecutive days at the weather station, although the temperature records that had stood were amongst the warmest record lows recorded in the month. First, on January 27, two record lows were seen. The low temp for the day was -10�, which broke the old record low for the date of -7�, set in 1996. We also saw a record low high temperature for the date, of 16�, which broke the old record of 24�, set in 2009. Then for the next day, January 28, the  temperature surpassed the record low  for the day, which was a unimpressive -4�, with a reading of -6�.

Four record high temperatures were reached in February, including 2 record high lows of 29� on the 8th (old was 27�), and 36� on the 11th, which totally smashed the old record, which was 28�. Then the 2 record daytime highs were 57� on the 10th, and 54� on February 11. Overall, February '17 was the 5th warmest February ever in Crestone.

The Crestone/Baca weather station also saw one record amount of precipitation for the date set on February 12, when 0.24 of an inch fell, breaking the old record of a meager 0.08 of an inch, set in 2007.

March was very warm, with 4 record highs reached: 67� on the 16th, 67� again on the very next day, 68� on the 18th, and 69� on the 19th.

The first measurable rain of 2017 occurred late Saturday night, March 25, with .01 of an inch recorded before it turned to heavy snow. Although the clock on the wall claims this occurred after midnight on Sunday March 26, the NWS is always on standard time (MST), so therefore this rain that fell at 12:15am daylight time (MDT), is report on standard time.

A record low high temperature was reached on April 29, when the high temperature for the day only reach 32�, breaking the previous record low high of 33�, which was set in 2016, and also reached in 2 previous years.

April saw 6 days with the humidity values at 10% or lower, with the lowest reading being 4% on April 14. Then in May, only one such day occurred.

2 different hail storms hit on May 7th, about 2 hours apart. This was the first time since March 20, 2005 that has happen.

A record amount of precipitation for May 10 fell at the Crestone/Baca weather station in the form of both rain and snow, when .82 of an inch was recorded. That broke the old record of .28 of an inch, set in 2015.
 
A record low high temperature for May 18 was reached when the high was only 44� (set just after midnight). That not only totally smashed the old record of 56� (set just last year). but the afternoon high was only 39�.

Two record lows were set at the Crestone/Baca weather station on May 19. The first set was a record low temperature reading of 22�, which broke the old record of 26� set back in 1983. Then we also saw a record broken for the lowest high temperature for the date, when the high only reached 51�, breaking the old mark of 52�, set in 2011.  

June was the 10th driest June on record with only .23" of precipitation recorded. The month also saw 16 days with the humidity values below 10%, with 2 days seeing a reading of just 4%.

Crestone/Baca went 30 days, from June 5 to July 5, without any measurable precipitation occurring.

Only one weather record was set in August, when on the third, the high of 68� was a record low high for the date. The old record was 72�, set in 1999. Another interesting note, although not looked at as a true record, was that the highest temperature for August 2017 was 81.9�, the lowest high for the month ever seen for August since records were first kept in 1982. The old lowest high reading was 84�, set in 1982, '84, '91, and also in 2014.

Two new precipitation records were set in September. Both for the most precip in a day. First one occurred on September 23, when .37 of an inch of rain fell. The old record was .31 of an inch, reached in 2016. The second occurrence took place on September 27, when .49 of an inch of rain fell. The old record high for this date was just .18 of an inch, reached in 2002.

Nothing too exciting to report for October, other then the .15" of precip was the third lowest total for any October, and it was very dry, with 4 days of below 10% humidity vales reached, with a low of 4% on the 16th.

Along with 6 record high temperature readings reach in the month, this November turned out to be the warmest November ever on record in the Crestone area, with an average temperature of 40.3 degrees, smashing the old record of 38.9 degrees, set in 1999.

Crestone/Baca closed out December and the year with 2 record highs, with a reading of 55�, shattering the old 1998 record by a full 4 degrees. Then the next day and the last day of 2017, a record high was tied when it climbed to 51�. This record was first reached back in 1996. Also, for the entire month, this was the second warmest December ever.

December's total snowfall was only 1.2 inches, making it the second least snowiest December ever on record. The only time less snow fell in the month, was back in the year of Crestone's worst ever drought, in 2000, when only 0.8" of snow was recorded.

With an average temperature of 46.1 degrees, 2017 was the third warmest year on record. 46.8 degrees in 2001, and 47.2 degrees in 2000, were the two warmest.