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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.