DENVER (KDVR) — Denver has recorded rain 11 out of the last 14 days and this rainy, stormy pattern is continuing.
“This is unique in the sense that it has been persistent,” said Greg Heavener, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder. “We keep getting these really big influxes of Gulf of Mexico moisture across eastern Colorado and once it hits the mountains to our west, it rings it out as showers and thunderstorms on an almost daily basis,” Heavener said.
Heavener said this keeps happening because of a blocking pattern. Pinpoint Weather Meteorologist Travis Michels explained.
“Just like the offensive line of a football team, they are blocking because they don’t want anyone to get to the quarterback. Well this high-pressure system is blocking this low-pressure system from making its way across the country and because it stops it, we don’t get this low-pressure system to really move quickly and it stalls out and it stays in the same position and it stays in that rainy pattern,” Michels said.
Michels said there are a few different theories about why this is happening. He said we have moved out of a La Niña pattern, into a more neutral phase that will transition into El Niño, and that could change how the jet stream moves across the U.S.
There have also been some massive typhoons that cause abnormalities in air pressure.
Whatever the cause, it means a lot of moisture. Denver has picked up about 2.5 inches of rain in just the last two weeks.