Click here to read the summary. Here’s an excerpt:
April’s snowstorms improved the water supply prospects in the Colorado River Basin, but the effects were uneven across the 15 counties of the Colorado River District.
Receiving the biggest boosts were the Colorado, White and Yampa Basins. The Gunnison Basin was not as fortunate and will likely experience water supply problems this summer, according to General Manager Eric Kuhn, reporting to the Colorado River District Board at its April 16 meeting.
For most of the winter, Western Colorado was track- ing even with the abysmal snow year of 2012, the fourth worst on record. But where it had stopped snowing in March of 2012, this past March experienced a wave of storms, a pattern that accelerated in April.
In fact, the April 14-15 storm forced the Colorado River District to abbreviate its agenda and defer a number of discussions until its July meeting.
“This time last year, 90 percent had run off and we about 10 to 20 percent of normal snowpack,” Kuhn said. “This April, the curve was still going up. Still, district wide it is not an above average year. We will have some problems down the road but they will not be as severe as it seemed earlier in the year.”