Precipitation Over the Years by the Numbers
There are 3 CoAgMet weather stations in Grand County, CO - two stations near Kremmling and one station near Granby.
CoAgMet stands for Colorado Agricultural Meterological Network. CoAgMET is a network of over 90 research-grade weather stations around the State of Colorado, managed by the Colorado Climate Center. Originally designed to measure reference evapotranspiration near crops (hence the emphasis on ET in the name!), the majority of sites are located in rural areas near agricultural lands.
These stations collect many types of data, one of which is liquid precipitation. Data from the three local stations can be found on the MPCD website: CoAgMet - Middle Park Conservation District.
Summer Precipitation Summary
Due to the drought conditions we experienced this year, I thought it would be interesting to summarize the precipitation data from all three stations over the past seven years. The summer precipitation values displayed below are the total sum of rain measured in inches at each site from May 1st to August 28th of each year.
| Year | Granby Station | Troublesome Station | Wolford Station |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2.07 in | 3.17 in | 3.08 in |
| 2019 | 4.47 in | 4.89 in | 5.55 in |
| 2020 | 3.17 in | 1.88 in | 2.53 in |
| 2021 | 4.05 in | 3.62 in | 4.01 in |
| 2022 | 6.05 in | 4.98 in | 5.33 in |
| 2023 | 6.09 in | 4.50 in (weather station not working from 6/22/23 to 8/17/23) | 6.22 in |
| 2024 | 4.20 in | 3.85 in | 3.81 in |
| 2025 | 2.85 in | 2.75 in | 3.04 in |
It is worth noting that these rain guages occassionally produce errors if intense rains result in drops bouncing out of the basin, it is snowing or hailing, or if less than 0.01 inch falls (the amount needed to tip the bucket). Nevertheless, because the same rain guages have been on these stations over the years, the comparison of values at a given location over time still provides valuable insight.