People who are selling their home to move to Colorado are often apprehensive about the move. Many people have an impression of Colorado as a land of permanent ice and snow - a place where it's easy to get lost in an avalanche and get frost bite. But Colorado is a beautiful state with as many popular summer activities as there are winter ones. If you're curious about the type of weather you'll see in Colorado, let us prepare you for what you're about to experience.

Colorado is a complex state, made up of mountains, valleys, plains, and even deserts, so it's not always possible to make blanket statements regarding the weather in Colorado. Generally speaking, though, the higher up you are the colder it will be and the more rain or snow you will see. Average temperatures between major cities can vary as much as ten degrees for the same month - something you're not used to if you used to own a townhome in a warmer climate. Temperatures will also change noticeably if you drive up or down a mountain.

The eastern plains area of Colorado, has a semi-arid steppe climate. What this means is that there is very little humidity and not much rain. The weather tends to be sunny and the nights tend to be clear. Droughts are not uncommon, as most of the rain tends to fall in the spring and summer. Winters are dry and cold (you'll definitely want to learn more about efficient home heating systems with most of the snow that you see in prints falling in March and April. This area of Colorado is mostly flat and checkered with cultivated fields.

The western part of Colorado is much more mountainous, as it contains the foothills and Rocky Mountains. Weather here varies greatly, from semi arid to dry to humid little pockets tucked away in valleys. Most of the precipitation falls in winter, either as rain or snow depending on the altitude. Snow can even fall in summer here. Summers are cool and winters are snowy with a lot of sunshine, so don't pack away your sunglasses in September.

Colorado is also no stranger to extreme weather conditions. Thunderstorms are common in the plains area with some so severe that they can throw out tornadoes, which are weather phenomena not often seen in busy cities. Lightning, hail, floods, and wildfires are also quite common and some cities get most of their precipitation in the form of massive winter snowstorms. So you can see that Colorado is an interesting geography, with a wide range of weather patterns.