Here’s Part Four of the Metro North Newspapers series “Unquenchable Thirst” (Linda Detroy). Ms. Detroy explains how the state keeps and eye on the sky to assess water availability for the irrigation season. Click through and read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt:
“If we get a lot of heavy snow from this time of year through the end of the season, we get quick runoff that creates flooding problems and disappears. Then we’re down to low flows for the remainder of the year,” Nettles said. “If a city has reservoirs to capture water, it may be OK.”
According to the most recent report on water supply conditions from the Water Availability Task Force, cities in Division 1, which includes all of Jefferson and Adams counties and is organized around the South Platte, Laramie and Republican river basins, are looking at a so-so situation. The report shows that, as of Jan. 31, reservoir storage was near or above average across the state, but the snowpack was low. As of Feb. 1, for Division 1, snow- pack was 77 percent of normal, and the National Weather Service forecast through May for the South Platte river basin is for below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures.
From the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn):
Long-time weather watcher Rick Bly tallied 33 inches of snow in February, compared to the long-term average of 23.5 inches. On some days, strong winds may have blown some of the snow away from the measuring stick, Bly said. That’s why the snow-water equivalent from the melted snow is a more important reading, and Bly said the February total was an encouraging 2.59 inches of water, well above the average 1.71 inches…
For the year-to-date, the precipitation total is just above average for the first time since October, at 7.95 inches of water, compared to the average 7.52 inches for this time of year. That’s good news for the Blue River Basin, where the snowpack has lagged most of the winter, but statewide, the snowpack is still about 15 percent below average. The Blue River Basin feeds the Colorado Basin, where the snowpack is now at 80 percent of average, up a bit from a month ago.
The South Platte Basin is still reporting the highest snowpack reading, at 93 percent of normal, while the Yampa and North Platte basins are at about 80 percent. In the southwestern river basins, the snowpack ranges between 84 and 88 percent of average…
In Dillon, Denver Water observers recorded 12 inches of snow in February, compared to the average 18.6 inches. That melted down to just 0.75 inches of water, well short of the average 1.2 inches.