From the Summit County Citizens Voice:

Several Colorado ski areas have already picked up more than 100 inches of snow this season, with Steamboat leading the pack at 111 inches. Breckenridge has reported 109 inches of snowfall for the season…Vail also broke the 100-inch mark during the most recent wave of snow…Beaver Creek is at 73 inches for the season and has about 800 acres of terrain open for early December skiing…Copper has picked up 87 inches of snow so far, and an automate SNOTEL site at Copper is showing that the snowpack is nearly double the average for this time of year…Keystone year-to-date snowfall…[is] 78 inches…Just across the Divide, Loveland also broke the century mark, with 101 inches of snow.

Here’s the release from Colorado State University:

Scientists have gained a much better picture of how much precipitation comes from clouds thanks to CloudSat, NASA’s first cloud-profiling radar in orbit designed in part by former Colorado State University researcher Graeme Stephens.

Even the best technology in the world needs a backup plan: Scientists need to check the measurements from CloudSat against actual observations in the sky to ensure that their predictions and models are working.

Tristan L’Ecuyer, a Colorado State research scientist and one of the original crew working on CloudSat with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, spent five weeks in September and October flying over Helsinki, Finland, to measure precipitation in clouds at higher latitudes. These clouds produce light, steady rainfall that makes up a large fraction of the fresh water that supports life at higher latitudes. Helsinki gets extended periods – usually two months – of this type of light rainfall, L’Ecuyer said.

L’Ecuyer flew in a specially equipped plane – owned by the National Science Foundation – to compare measurements of cloud particles and raindrops against precipitation models and CloudSat observations.

The experiment, known as the Light Precipitation Validation Experiment, provided some of the first observational data on these types of clouds. Also working on the project were research scientist Matt Lebsock and graduate student Norm Wood, both from Colorado State, as well as scientists from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the University of Helsinki, Environment Canada and the University of Wyoming, which hosts the plane.

“Light rainfall at higher latitudes is an important source of fresh water that could be susceptible to climate change. It’s really important to be able to verify whether our model of future changes in light rainfall are on the right track or not,” L’Ecuyer said. “We’re trying to measure the whole vertical profile of the cloud that produces precipitation to help explain what we see from space with CloudSat. The CloudSat observations can then be used to test climate models globally.”

Measurements collected during the experiment show how these high-latitude clouds produce precipitation: Small ice particles at the top of the cloud collect into snow crystals just above the freezing mark. As those particles start to fall and the temperature warms above freezing, they collapse and turn into rain drops.

“We watched the ice crystals melt as we flew down through the clouds – you can’t see that with the naked eye,” L’Ecuyer said. “We’re studying the properties of the air, the humidity, temperature and the water content as well as how much rainfall actually landed.”

Funding for the project was provided through CloudSat and JPL.

Stephens, formerly at CSU and now at JPL, is the principal investigator on NASA CloudSat mission, which is one of the few university-led Earth science missions. CloudSat launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Santa Barbara, Calif., and reached its destination 438 miles above Earth in April 2006. Colorado State’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere – a partnership with NOAA – collects and distributes data from CloudSat to scientists across the globe.

From The Denver Post:

The National League of Cities is holding its Congress of Cities and Exposition at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver through Saturday. Thousands of municipal elected officials and city workers are in town for seminars with titles such as “Regional Perspectives on Water Infrastructure.”

Say hello to the Clean Water Alliance. From their website:

The 501(c)(3) nonprofit Clean Water America Alliance (CWAA) is working today to explore the complex issue of water sustainability and plan for the future by improving public awareness that advances holistic, watershed-based approaches to water quality and quantity challenges. A broad cross-section of interests have come together through the Alliance to begin an important dialogue on the future – focusing on exploring and analyzing issues of critical importance to the nation’s ability to provide clean and safe waters to future generations, offering information and education to citizens and policy-makers on key issues, and recognizing organizations and individuals for innovation and outstanding achievements in the water quality and quantity arena.

Here’s the Grumbles’ announcement (Lorraine Lokin):

The Clean Water America Alliance welcomes Ben Grumbles, a dynamic water policy leader, as its new President beginning in December. A passionate civil servant, Grumbles served as Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and is the longest serving Assistant Administrator for Water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “The Alliance is uniquely positioned to make a big difference and improve water policy nationally and locally,” explains Grumbles. “I’m honored to have the chance to help unite, rather than divide, people and interests and make meaningful progress sustaining America’s most precious liquid asset.”

Grumbles has served on the Alliance Board of Directors since April 2009 and chaired the organization’s national dialogue series which concluded this past September. He succeeds Ken Kirk, who shepherded the Alliance for its first three years. Kirk will continue his role as the Executive Director of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA). “New leadership is critical at this time to move the Alliance forward” says Kirk. “I believe strongly in the organization’s objectives and will continue to participate in other capacities going forward.”

While serving as the Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Grumbles focused on three priority areas: conservation and reuse of water (e.g. wastewater recycling), clean energy and climate change (e.g. solar power, vehicle emissions, uranium mining), and collaboration (e.g. the Colorado River, the Mexican Border, e-waste recycling). While serving as the Assistant Administrator for Water at the U.S. EPA he led its National Water Program from January 2004 – January 2009. He also served as associate administrator for EPA’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations in 2004, working with mayors, governors, and state and federal legislators.

Prior to EPA, Grumbles worked as a Senior Counsel for the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Environmental Counsel and Deputy Chief of Staff for the Science Committee. He also taught for 10 years at the Environmental Law Program of George Washington University Law School from 1994 to 2004. Ben has a BA degree in English from Wake Forest University in North Carolina, a JD degree from Emory Law School in Georgia, and an LLM (Masters) degree in environmental law from George Washington Law School in Washington, D.C.

Their Urban Water Sustainability Leadership Conference is next week.

Here’s a report about the prices of raw water and the current trends from Steve Maxwell writing for the American Water Works Association. It’s not hard to predict what would happen if the market moved to private industry. Here’s an excerpt:

Today, declining water availability has become a critical determinant of future growth in many areas of the West: Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Denver, Colo.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Southern California. As such situations develop, water is gradually transferred from agricultural irrigation to municipal consumption, and the prices of such water transfers are increasing sharply…

As conditions of water scarcity and stress continue to develop in more and more regions around the world, water will continue to exhibit rapidly increasing prices. As this discussion demonstrates, we have already seen these trends in Australia and the western United States—and the conditions are in place for this or a similar trend to occur in many other parts of the world. As price rises, there will be more and more incentive for improved utilization of water, increased recycling, and increased reuse of water as well as more focus on wiser allocation of water among competing uses. Further- more, as water’s value is increas- ingly recognized and as its price continues to increase, water seems likely to begin to evolve into a new financial asset class as well—an increasingly attractive opportunity to invest in. For example, as shown in Figure 4, the price of Colorado water rights is indexed against various other investment asset indexes from 1989 to 2006. A dollar invested in water rights in that state would have clearly returned more than a dollar invested in most any of the other standard financial investment cate- gories—the stock market, precious metals, real estate, or commodi- ties. Water is our most precious commodity, and its price will increasingly reflect that fact.