It wasn’t the usual August around these parts.
The nearly four inches of rainfall Pueblo received last month made it the tenth wettest August on record, according the National Weather Service. Prior to the August monsoons, the area was in the throws of ongoing drought, having received just over three inches of precipitation through July. Then to most everyone’s surprise, spring made a curtain call.
The rains came. Sometimes it just spit, sometimes it came in buckets, and Pueblo transformed. The prairie exploded with grasses and wildflowers.
The manic nature of the weather earlier in the year-April in particular-where one day it’d be a balmy 75 degrees followed by a day that couldn’t get past the 30s, made the traditional spring season an unpredictable, frustrating one.
I suppose one could make the argument that our late summer rains, and the amounts that fell, were just as extreme as the early spring weather we experienced here in the Steel City. It’s just easier to endure the extremes in T-shirts and shorts than long pants and jackets.
Monsoon rains pour down on Van Buren Street in Pueblo on Aug. 7, 2013. Nearly 1.75 inches rain fell in a span of 25 minutes. Video by Mike Sweeney/©2013
