Live · Colorado Springs

Today's weather. What to do in the yard.

Real-time conditions, hourly forecast, and plant-care guidance tailored to what the sky is doing right now. Refresh anytime — the page pulls fresh data from the National Weather Service every time you load it.

Right now in Colorado Springs

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Today's guidance

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We'll show you exactly what to do (and what not to do) based on today's weather as soon as the forecast loads.

Hourly

Next 24 hours.

Scroll to see how temperature, precipitation, and wind will move across the day. Colored bands mark gardening windows.

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7-day

The week ahead.

Each day's plant-care tip updates to match what's coming. Check back daily — the advice changes with the forecast.

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Regime guides

How to care for your landscape in every kind of weather.

Colorado throws six seasons at us in a single week. Bookmark this page — open the regime that matches what's outside.

Hot & dry · 85°F+ with low humidity

Keep shrubs alive in a Colorado dry heat.

Water deep, not often. One long soak twice a week (45–60 minutes at the drip) beats daily shallow watering every time. Roots chase moisture downward.
Water before 9 am, never at noon. Water droplets magnify UV and scorch leaf tissue, and midday evaporation wastes half the volume.
Mulch 2–3 inches deep around every shrub — pulled back 3 inches from the trunk. Soil temperature drops 15°F under proper mulch.
Skip the fertilizer. Feeding stressed plants forces new growth they can't support. Wait for cool weather to resume feeding.
Never prune during heat. Cuts lose moisture, and new growth that follows will scorch. Defer all pruning to dawn cool spells or cool weeks.
Watch for wilt-in-the-morning. Afternoon wilt is normal; morning wilt means dangerously dry soil. Water immediately.

Cold snap · below 32°F, especially after warm spells

Protect plants when the temperature crashes.

Cover with frost cloth, not plastic. Plastic freezes to leaves and magnifies damage; breathable cloth (old bedsheets work) holds ground heat overnight.
Water deeply the afternoon before. Moist soil holds 4× more heat than dry soil — it releases that warmth all night.
Mound mulch around the crown of perennials. For marginal plants (lavender, Russian sage, butterfly bush), 4–6 inches of pine-needle mulch at the base can mean the difference between survival and replacement.
Move potted plants against the south wall of the house, under eaves. Micro-climate gains of 8–10°F overnight are common.
Don't prune frost damage yet. The brown leaves are insulating the live wood underneath. Wait until April to assess and cut back.
Evergreens need a winter drink. On warm days (above 45°F, soil not frozen), deep-water spruce and pine. Dehydration kills more evergreens than cold ever does.

Hail warning · spring and summer afternoons

Hail is coming. Act in the next 20 minutes.

Cover vulnerable plants with a tarp, bedsheet, or overturned trash can. Secure with rocks — gust fronts arrive first.
Move containers under eaves, carports, or into the garage. Five minutes of work saves a $40 hydrangea.
Drop umbrella patio pieces flat, and lay down anything the wind can pick up. Hail in Colorado Springs often comes with 60+ mph straight-line winds.
After it passes — don't prune right away. Shredded leaves still photosynthesize. Wait a week, then remove clearly dead tissue.
Soak damaged shrubs. Hail strips waxy cuticle and causes transpiration to spike. Extra water for 10 days helps recovery.
Apply a mild kelp or seaweed foliar 48 hours after the storm. It's the closest thing we have to a bruise cream for plants.

Heavy rain · 1"+ in 24 hours

When it actually rains in Colorado.

Turn off your irrigation for 3–5 days. Even smart controllers over-water after storms. Manual override beats rain sensors every time.
Don't walk on saturated turf. Soil compaction from footprints costs you a year of recovery. Stay off the lawn until it firms up.
Check drainage away from the house. Five minutes with a shovel to unblock the first 6 feet of downspout flow prevents $6,000 in foundation repairs.
Fungal-prone shrubs (roses, peonies, lilacs) benefit from a copper or neem spray the evening after. Wet foliage + warm nights = powdery mildew by Friday.
Pull weeds now. Wet soil releases tap roots intact. Twenty minutes post-storm beats two hours in July.
Top-dress beds with compost while they're moist. Nutrients soak in with the next gentle rain rather than sitting on the surface.

High wind · 35+ mph gusts

When the Front Range turns into a wind tunnel.

Water the day before forecast wind. Windburn is dehydration, not physical damage. A well-watered plant can shrug off 50-mph gusts.
Stake newly planted trees with two stakes opposite the prevailing wind (from the west-southwest here). Remove stakes after one growing season — longer creates weak trunks.
Tie back anything climbing. Clematis, climbing rose, hops — loose stems whip in wind and tear at the crown.
Don't fertilize before wind events. New growth is the first thing wind shreds. Defer feeds until a calm stretch.
Expect browning on evergreens. Blue spruce and arborvitae often brown on the windward side after a gusty week. They recover with deep watering in the following days.
Lift lightweight mulch back into place. Shredded bark blows out of beds during sustained wind; top up to 2–3 inches once things calm down.

Snow & ice · heavy wet snow

Shake it off — carefully.

Sweep (don't shake) snow off evergreen branches with a soft broom, working from the bottom up. Shaking frozen wood cracks it.
Don't salt the lawn or garden beds. De-icer runoff kills turf and poisons soil for a full season. Use sand, coffee grounds, or alfalfa pellets for traction instead.
Tent the garage-side shrubs. Snow sliding off a metal roof can flatten mature junipers. A simple 2×4 A-frame tent over them lasts the winter.
Let snow stay on beds. Snow is insulation — it holds beds at a steady 32°F, far warmer than exposed nights. Don't clear it off perennials.
Winter-water 1–2 days after snow melt on warm afternoons. Snow gives less moisture to the soil than most homeowners think.
Watch for vole tunnels once snow recedes. They'll show up as surface runs in the lawn — overseed those patches in April.

About this page

Real forecast data. Real Colorado advice.

Weather data comes from the US National Weather Service and Open-Meteo's North America forecast, refreshed every time you load the page. Plant-care guidance is written by Adam Burney and the Ponderosa crew based on 45 years of working landscapes from Monument to Fountain.

If the data ever looks wrong, hit refresh — we pull it live, so a browser offline will show stale numbers.