The wildfires that raged through the West (in particular) our state of Colorado were devastating in more ways than one.

There were a few factors that contributed to sparking these fires and making them grow at the rate that they did but one of the biggest problems we faced this past year, was the lack of precipitation and the hot temperatures.

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It started out pretty good, for instance, Boulder saw more than it's seasonal snow average by over 60 inches but starting in April, that all changed and that's when the dry and warm pattern started...and it kept going for practically the rest of the year.

In fact according to CPR News , Colorado saw one of its driest and warmest years EVER and faced some really weird weather phenomenons like when it went from near 100 degrees on one day to snow a couple of days later.  There was also a big thunderstorm that rolled through the Eastern Plains with wind gusts up to 112 mph.

About 12.2 inches of precipitation was recorded across Colorado almost 6 inches below the average. It was also one of the driest on records for cities like Denver which received only 8.74 inches of precipitation making it the 9th driest on record. Overall, 12.2 inches of precipitation was recorded across Colorado, about 6 inches below the average.

The overall driest year for Colorado was 2002 when we received 11.9 inches of precipitation.

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