Summit County and most of the U.S. are in the green zone this monsoon season.
The latest precipitation outlook from NOAA shows promising odds of above-average rainfall for three-quarters of the nation starting July 1. Not a single state will be drier than usual.
In Summit and Eagle counties, there is a one-in-three chance of above-average rainfall.
Down south the odds are even better – one-in-two chance of heavy rains.
This is welcome news for southern Colorado, where snowfall this winter was hit or miss, and snowpack in some areas was half of average.
Missing out on a wet monsoon, but still expecting normal rain, are the Great Lakes and a strip of the western U.S. from California and Nevada to southern Idaho and Montana.
The monsoon outlook follows a bone-dry June here Summit. This month has been the driest in three years, and the second-driest since we started keeping records in 2018, with less than a half-inch of rain at the Krystalized weather stationin Dillon.
Starting June 27, Summit and most of the I-70 mountain corridor adopt a Stage One fire ban. It will likely be with us until after July 4.