Northern Colorado Plateau Network climate monitoring report: 2006
Garman SL. 2007. Northern Colorado Plateau Network climate monitoring report: 2006. National Park Service. Moab, UT
The 2006 climate monitoring vital signs report contains the monthly and annual climate summaries, and climatic extremes for the weather stations located in the Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN) park units. Mean annual maximum and minimum temperature, and annual precipitation tended to be above average in 2006 throughout much of the NCPN region. About half of the NCPN weather stations recorded extreme or record high average monthly minimum air temperature in July, and extreme or record high values for total precipitation in October. Differences between average annual maximum temperature and long-term means were related to an elevation gradient in 2005, but not in 2006. Also, snowfall in 2005 was noticeably below long-term averages, but in 2006, about half of the NCPN weather stations recorded average to above average snowfall. A general increase over the past 25-45 yrs in the 4-yr composite, moving mean for mean annual minimum temperature is evident for most of the NCPN Coop stations. Conversely, there is evidence for a declining trend in snowfall over the past 20-25 yrs. Historical records for NCPN Coop stations indicate that annual precipitation has been highly variable, and that a strong unidirectional trend over the observation periods (20-40 yrs) is not readily evident.