(COLORADO) — It’s shaping up to be a pretty dry week across Southern Colorado. You’ve likely noticed the lack of rain and thunderstorm activity, but to really understand why it’s so dry, we need to look at what’s happening at different levels of the atmosphere.

As meteorologists, we use a variety of tools to track moisture in the atmosphere, including graphics you might’ve seen on-air, like the dewpoint forecast or even water vapor imagery. These visuals are incredibly important in forecasting, but each one represents a different layer of the atmosphere, and each plays a unique role in determining whether we’ll see rain or stay dry!

Surface Level

Let’s start at the surface. Dewpoints are a key measure of moisture at ground level. Higher dewpoints typically mean more humid air, which can fuel thunderstorms. Dewpoints help us identify features like fronts or drylines, and they’re often the first clue in forecasting where storms may initiate.

Mid Levels

In the mid levels of the atmosphere, roughly 10,000 to 20,000 feet up, we look at mid-level moisture. This gives us a broader view of moisture transport across the region. Where this moisture is present, we may see storm development. On the flip side, if dry air is being pulled in at this level, it can limit storm growth,  something we’re seeing this week.

Upper Levels

At the highest levels, including the upper troposphere and jet stream,  we use water vapor imagery to track moisture that we don’t typically show on air. This helps us spot large-scale atmospheric features, like upper-level lows or ridges, which impact weather patterns across entire regions. Right now, this imagery shows very little upper-level moisture, another reason our rain chances are staying low.

What It All Means for This Week

Looking at all of these layers together paints a clear picture: dry air dominates nearly every level of the atmosphere, which is why rain chances are few and far between for southern Colorado. Don’t expect much relief in the form of rain this week, but we’ll keep watching for any shifts in the pattern.