From the Estes Park Trail-Gazette (John Cordsen and Walt Hester):
Snow has been in short supply in the Big Thompson watershed as the spring melt approaches. Two recent fronts have helped, but by no means have they solved the problem.
“This is the winteriest it has looked all year,” said park ranger Dave O’Brien while he was taking snow measurements Tuesday morning at Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Colorado is in the midst of an historic drought. The snow pack at Bear Lake in the national park currently sits at 8.2 inches. That’s 5.5 inches, or 40 percent below the normal average for this time of year. Willow Park, below Fall River Pass, is at 46 percent below normal.
Moisture totals in Estes Park paint the same picture. Through the first week in March, snow and precipitation totals are at a ten-year-low. Through March 6, only 11.1 inches of snow has been measured in town, this equates to a scant. .60 of an inch of moisture. At 2.01 inches, precipitation totals in 2003 were nearly 2.5 times greater than they are this year. One of the wettest years of the past decade occurred in 2011 when 2.08 an inch of precipitation had been recorded through the first week of March. That was also the year the Big Thompson River sloshed out of its banks, flooding low lying areas along the river through Estes Park. The high snow mark through the first week of March occurred in 2005 when 34.6 inches had been measured…
The Fern Lake Fire still smolders under the thin layer of snow in the park.
From the Boulder Daily Camera:
{Reservoir levels] are so low, only six reservoirs in the South Platte basin are holding more water than their average for this time of year. And some of the most prominent are well below average. According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Union Reservoir is at 43 percent capacity, when in normal years at this time it is at 85 percent. Lake Loveland is at 31 percent, compared to its average for March of 85 percent.
This week, Fort Collins said it will enact watering restrictions on April 1, and many municipalities on the Front Range will likely follow suit.
Meanwhile, the Brighton City Council has approved the purchase of two shares in the Fulton Ditch for non-potable irrigation. Here’s a report from the Brighton Standard-Blade. Here’s an excerpt:
Council unanimously approved the purchase of two Fulton Ditch shares to be used as non-potable water. The shares will be purchased for $30,000 with the money coming from the Parks and Recreation Capital Improvement Fund.