Colorado Springs

The city is a famous tourist destination due to its position at the foot of Pikes Peak and the Rocky Mountains. Tourism is the Pikes Peak region’s third biggest sector, employing more over 13,000 people. Annually, about 5 million tourists contribute $1.35 billion in income to the region.

There are over 55 attractions and activities in the Colorado Springs region, including Garden of the Gods, the United States Air Force Academy, the ANA Money Museum, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Old Colorado City, and the United States Olympic Training Center.

The Colorado Springs Visitor Information Center in downtown Colorado Springs provides free regional information to leisure and business visitors. The Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region (COPPeR), which is also situated downtown, promotes and supports the arts in the Pikes Peak Region. It is responsible for the PeakRadar website, which is used to communicate municipal activities.

COLORADO SPRINGS CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU

• Visitor Information Center, 515 S. Cascade Ave. Business Hours (Offseason): Monday thru Friday: 8:30AM-5PM (Summer Season) 8AM-6PM

Colorado Springs has a semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), and its position immediately east of the Rocky Mountains allows it to benefit from the quick warming effect of chinook winds during the winter, but also exposes it to extreme day-to-day weather fluctuation. The city has year-round sunlight, with an average of 243 sunny days each year, and gets an average of around 16.5 inches (419 mm) of precipitation. Colorado Springs adopted lawn water restrictions in 2002 as a result of exceptionally low precipitation for many years after the 1999 disaster. These restrictions were eliminated in 2005.

Colorado Springs is a lightning-strike hotspot in the United States. This natural occurrence influenced Nikola Tesla’s decision to locate his laboratory and conduct research in Colorado Springs.

SEASONAL TEMPERATURES

Winters are warm to moderately cold, with December being the coldest month at 30.8 °F (0.7 °C); traditionally, January has been the coldest month, but December has experienced both lower daily maxima and minimum in recent years. Typically, there are 5.2 nights with temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) and 23.6 days with temperatures remaining below freezing, although sustained sub-zero (°F) cold outbreaks are conceivable but unusual.

Snowfall is typically moderate and melts quickly due to the direct sun, with the city receiving 38 inches (97 cm) of snow per season, although the mountains to the west frequently receive more than triple that amount; March is the snowiest month in the region, both in terms of total accumulation and number of days with measurable snowfall. Additionally, eight of the top ten biggest 24-hour snowfalls happened between March and May. Summers are hot, with July being the hottest month, averaging 70.9 °F (21.6 °C) and 18 days a year with highs of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher. Due to the high elevation and aridity, evenings are typically chilly, seldom exceeding 70 °F (21 °C). Although dry weather prevails in general, short afternoon thunderstorms are frequent, particularly in July and August, when the city gets the bulk of its annual rainfall from the North American Monsoon.

When leaving Fountain and approaching Pueblo, the city is located in a high desert with the Southern Rocky Mountains to the west, the Palmer Divide to the north, high plains to the east, and high desert areas to the south.

The city has a total area of 194.6 square miles (504.1 km2), of which 194.6 square miles (503.9 km2) is land and 0.35 square miles (0.9 km2) is water, or 0.19 percent.

The military, high-tech industries, and tourism all contribute significantly to Colorado Springs’ economy. Currently, the city is enjoying modest expansion, mostly in the service sector. As of October 2015, the city’s unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, down from 4.8 percent in October 2014 and 7.3 percent in November 2013, and lower than the state’s rate of 3.8 percent and the national rate of 5.0 percent.

INDUSTRY OF DEFENSE

The military industry is critical to the Colorado Springs economy, accounting for some of the city’s greatest employees. A significant portion of this business is devoted to the development and operation of different missile defense programs. The aerospace sector has also had an impact on the Colorado Springs economy due to its tight links to military.

Although several defense businesses have relocated or decreased their city campuses, there is still a minor growing tendency. Boeing, General Dynamics, Harris Corporation, SAIC, ITT, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman are among the city’s significant military businesses. Colorado Springs is home to the Space Foundation.

HIGH-TECH INDUSTRY

A significant portion of Colorado Springs’ economy is focused on the manufacture of sophisticated electrical equipment. Between 2000 and 2006, the Colorado Springs area’s high tech industry fell in total size (from around 21,000 to approximately 8,000), with major declines in information technology and complicated electronic equipment. Due to a declining tourist industry, the high tech sector continues to behind the military in terms of income and jobs. Current trends indicate that the employment ratio in high technology will continue to decline in the foreseeable future.

Among the high-tech firms having ties to the city are:

Verizon Business, a telecommunications company, employed around 1300 people in 2008.

For the computer business, Hewlett-Packard has a sizable sales, support, and SAN storage engineering center.

The SNIA Technology Center is housed under the Storage Networking Industry Association.

Agilent was split out from HP in 1999 as a public corporation. Intel employed 250 people in 2009. The structure is now being utilized as a consolidated unemployment and social services complex.

Broadcom (previously LSI Corporation) develops electronics and software for datacenters and mobile networks that improve storage and networking. Microchip Technology (previously Atmel) is a semiconductor manufacturer. The Cypress Semiconductor Colorado Design Center is a research and development facility for chip manufacture. In 1996, Apple Inc. sold the plant to Sanmina-SCI.