Cortez came in at 142% of its average precipitation in May, largely thanks to storms that hit the first nine days of the month.
During those storms, 0.97 inch of rain quickly pushed Cortez past its 0.93 inch average for the whole month.
For the remaining 22 days of May, just 0.35 inch of rain fell; by month’s end, the city’s total precipitation reached 1.32 inches.
Looking back on 2025, the first time Cortez surpassed a monthly average for precipitation was in February, thanks to a generous Valentine’s weekend storm. It happened again in May, and just 16 days into June, the city is more than double the average precipitation for what is historically the driest month of the year.
And yet, drought status remains in Montezuma County.
“It would be nice if the rainfall was more distributed for the month,” said Jim Andrus, a weather watcher in Cortez for the National Weather Service.
Andrus added that it’s a random episode or two of rain that pushes a month over its average precipitation, like the concentrated storms in February, May and now June; all the rain for this month – 0.86 inch – fell in the first six days.
“Casino Weather could describe Cortez weather so far this year,” he said.
The “slots lever” in “January, March and April got few matches, but pulls for February and May got all five raindrops lined up for above-normal rainfall,” he said.
Pulls this month have also been lucky, but even with 0.39 inch more rain than usual in May, and 0.49 inch more so far in June, Cortez remains nearly an inch short of its average year-to-date precipitation.
In fact, Montezuma County “suffers moderate to severe drought,” so “be careful betting your water reserves in this atmospheric lottery,” said Andrus.
Neighboring states – namely southern Arizona and New Mexico, and west and south Texas – “are slammed with extreme to exceptional drought, the worst two categories of drought ratings,” he said.
But here in Cortez, “we’ll keep pulling that lever every month hoping for more rain payouts,” he said.
As far as temperature goes, the 30-day outlook is leaning above average, and the 90-day outlook is predicting above average temperatures.
In May, the highest temperature was 90 degrees on May 31, and the coldest was 29 degrees on May 20.
“It’s one sunny blue hot day after another,” Andrus said. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed for monsoon season,” which is July, August and September.
