Rainy August afternoons haven't been enough to bring precipitation levels back to normal for most of the metro area, and hope is fading that we can catch up by year's end.

"We probably are going to be below normal for the year unless we get some big storm," said Jim Kalina, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"Since we're entering one of the drier times of the year, it's going to be hard to catch up 3 inches.

"It gets drier each month until you get to February," Kalina said.

Recent dry months have brought down the annual total. Last month, rain levels were 1.7 inches below average, and in June they were an inch below.

For August, levels are 0.28 of an inch above normal, hardly enough to make up for lost water.

Going into the weekend, the annual rain level measured at Denver International Airport stood at 8.24 inches, more than 3 inches below average.

"The airport area has been very dry compared to some of the other areas," Kalina said. "They haven't had much rain this summer. . . . They just didn't happen to get hit by the storms."

Still, Kalina said there is no reason to worry - yet.

"Last year was even drier than this year," he said. "Last year at this time we were at 4.52 inches," a little more than half the precipitation we have now.

"Even though we're dry, we're doing much better than we were last year," Kalina said.

Wait and watch the spring water levels, he cautioned, before getting concerned about overall water levels.

"Say it's a really dry winter and the next spring is dry, then we'll have some problems," he said.

Scattered afternoon thunderstorms predicted throughout the weekend may help.

Today is expected to be mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of thunderstorms, and Sunday holds a 10 percent chance of storms. Highs both days are expected to remain in the low 90s.

craigk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5618

Dry summer

Low rainfall in June and July helped bring down the annual precipitation average.