National Park Service

Climate Monitoring in the Northern Colorado Plateau Network: Annual Report 2010 National Park Service

This report documents the 2010 monthly and annual climate summaries and climatic extremes for National Weather Service Cooperative Observer (Coop) and SNOTEL weather stations located within park units of the Northern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring Network (NCPN), and two stations located near park boundaries. In 2010, mean annual maximum temperature tend-ed to be below average throughout much of the NCPN region, while mean annual minimum tem-perature, precipitation, and snowfall exceeded long-term averages. Diff erences between long-term means and this year?s measures of average minimum and maximum temperature and total precipi-tation were not related to the elevation gradient of stations. However, at all but two stations (those at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area), total snow-fall was related to elevation gradient: the higher the elevation, the greater the increase in snowfall relative to long-term means. A general increase in the four-year composite, moving mean for mean annual minimum temperature is evident for most of the Coop stations in the NCPN over the past 25?50 years. There is evidence for a declining trend in snowfall from the 1980s to the mid-2000s, but during the last couple of years and in 2010, snowfall exceeded long-term averages. Historical records for NCPN Coop stations indicate that annual precipitation has been highly variable and that a strong unidirectional trend over the observation periods (8?80 years) is not readily evident.