Weather Records for Manitou Sps., CO

For the most part these records are all for Manitou Springs except where noted. Years covered are from May 1978 thru March 1981 and September 1985 thru November, 2002, unless otherwise noted.

TEMPERATURE RECORDS

Records are in degrees Fahrenheit

Highest:        99° on July 31, 2002 
Lowest:        -29° on December 22, 1990
Lowest High:   -13° on February 4, 1989
Highest Low:    70° on June 26, 1994 
Highest Mean:   84° on June 26, 1994
Lowest Mean:   -16° on February 4, 1989

PRECIPITATION RECORDS

Records are in inches

Most in 24 hours:   10.0" on April 29, 1999
Most - year:        39.3" 1999
Least - year:       13.5" 1988

SNOWFALL RECORDS

Records are in inches
Yearly snowfall is from July through June

Most in 24 hour period:   32.5" on April 30, 1996 
Most - year:              94.3" 1986-87
Least - year:             31.8" 1980-81
Average - year:           63.5"
Earliest:                 trace  on September 2,1961*   
Latest:                   trace  on June 10, 1975*

*Recorded by spotters in the Ute Pass/Manitou Springs area.
Snow has been reported on a few occasions in the mountains above
downtown Manitou Sps during the months of July and August.

OTHER STATS

- Some "blog like" notes follow -
(Most comments taken from weather spotter notes written by me between 1978 and 2002)

Cold in summer/warmth in winter

Highest January temperature: 70° on 1-30-86
Lowest July temperature: 34°at 2:18pm on 7-26-95 with .3" hail on ground

TORNADOES

Manitou Springs sits on the very western end of the US tornado belt. Although overhead funnels have been spotted numinous times, I only know of two actual touchdowns in Manitou Sps proper. The last one, which I witnessed, hit just south of the downtown area across from City Hall on June 25,1979, causing lots of damage.

HAIL

Manitou Springs and the entire Colorado Front Range is tied with the Himalayas in India for the most days per year with hail reported in the world. We average about 10 to 15 days a year with hail. In most cases the hail is small, about 3/8 of an inch in diameter. Biggest hail I have recorded here is 1/2 inch in diameter.While visiting the south side of Colorado Springs one day in early July, 1978 I witnessed solfball size hail falling, which caused major damage. Also, large amounts of small size hailstones accumulating on the ground seem to happen often in the area. Biggest nearby accumulation report I can remember was 6 foot drifts in late August of '90?(may have been in '91) at Union and Austin Bluffs in Colorado Springs.

NICE WEATHER NOTES

Summertime:

Manitou Springs has more sunny days on average, than what the rest of the country averages. We also don't have any hot humid days either. The humidity
is always low on the warmest days of the year. It is common in the summer to have a few days with humidity readings below 10% and it's normal to have
readings in the 25% to 30% range. Average high temperatures are usually in the low 80s° with lows around 60°or so.

Wintertime:

Snow usually melts real fast here because of the low humidity. It is normal to have a few, if not several days each winter that are warm (upper 50s and 
low 60s). Unlike most US locations, January is our least snowiest month of the winter (March and April are the two snowiest). Average high temperature is around
40° with lows around 15°.

FLASH FLOODS

Flash Floods occur every few years, usually in the spring time. Most are minor. The last one to hit town was not. It happen on April 29,1999 after a few days of heavy snow and then heavy rain. There were two flash floods that day. The worst one came down Williams Canyon onto Cañon Avenue, till it emptied down below into Fountain Creek. It caused widespread damage. I lived off of Cañon Ave at the time and it was quite a sight. The north end of Cañon Ave as well as three other streets had to be permanently closed because of the flood. Most of the old dirt road that
leads up to the Cave of the Winds in Williams Canyon was obliterated, looking like hundreds of bombs had hit it.

UNUSUAL WEATHER
(Besides the stuff reported above)

I have seen snow fall several times with the air temperature in the mid 40s.
I have also seen it snow in town with temperatures of 50°(F)and 52°(F), both times in the month of May, with partly cloudy skies

I have witness sun devils once here, on a sub zero morning in January of '96.

Non-Manitou notes:

While living in Telluride, CO, in the summer of '84, I got to witness it raining lightly on the front, north side of my house, while at the exact same time on the back, south side of the house there was no rain falling. This went on for about 5 minutes...... One more time! While at a friend's house in northern Colorado Springs on July 26, 2002, we witnessed rainfall out of the front north facing window and no rain falling out of the back south facing window. When we went outside to investigate, we found it was raining only in an area covering about 20 feet.

NOT UNUSUAL WEATHER

Manitou Springs has sun showers often. In turn, rainbows are quite common, as are double rainbows.

Because of the low humidity, high and low temperature can and do fluctuate wildly in any 24 hour period. It is not unusual to see temperatures in the 50s or even the 60s one minute and then snow falling and sticking on the ground a short time later.

Check out this link for more weather records in the Pikes Peak area.