Mage at the NRCS was busy yesterday. Click on a thumbnail to view the gallery of snowpack data.
From The Denver Post (Scott Willoughby):
With another powder day looming on Interstate 70, Denver skiers commuting up to the mountains already know there’s snow in the high country. Just how much depends on where you go.
According to Natural Resources Conservation Services Snotel measurements, the statewide snowpack for Colorado was at 94 percent of average Tuesday, a little less than snowbound Front Range skiers might think. That’s because the vast majority of snow has fallen north of I-70, if you include the entirety of the sprawling South Platte River basin measuring at 109 percent of its annual average snowpack.
The North Platte basin to its west leads the state at 110 percent, followed by the adjacent Yampa/White River basin (home to Steamboat Springs) at 108 percent, while the Colorado River basin — home to the Summit County ski resorts, Winter Park, Vail and Beaver Creek, among others — measures at an impressive 107 percent of average (and 165 percent of this time last year).
Breckenridge Resort is reporting more than seven feet of snow so far this month, with two feet of new snow in the forecast this week. If the prediction holds true, January could prove to be a record month for snowfall in Breckenridge and surrounding areas.
That’s all well and good for the skiing, but the bigger beneficiaries may be Colorado’s arid eastern plains, where upland habitat in northeast Colorado continues to see much-needed drought relief heading into the spring. To the south, the news is improved, but still shy of ideal, with the Arkansas River basin showing a Jan. 28 snowpack measuring 88 percent of average. Relative to that date in 2013, however, the snowpack is measuring 166 percent.
Gunnison River fishermen should be happy to see the snowpack sitting at a respectable 91 percent of average (125 percent of last year), while the Animas/San Miguel/Dolores/San Juan basin in southwest Colorado remains off pace at a mere 70 percent of its annual average.
Bringing up the rear once again this winter is the Upper Rio Grande basin at 67 percent of average, although there’s still ample time to recover with snowpack typically peaking in mid-April.
If there’s an upside, it’s the mild winter that deer and elk herds in southwest Colorado have experienced thus far. According to Patt Dorsey, southwest regional manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the herds are thriving with ample food sources on healthy winter range.
The ski reports out of Telluride haven’t been all bad, either.
On Dec. 30, Telluride’s 13,320-foot Palmyra Peak recorded its earliest opening since it was brought inside the boundary ropes in 2008. The snow cycle has since subsided a bit, but the mountain still reports a 46-inch base.
Just over the pass, Silverton Mountain claims the deepest base for ski areas in the state at 67 inches.
While Colorado can’t claim to be out from under the snow drought that has lingered since 2012, much of the state is sitting in far better shape as we head into the snowiest months of the year, historically.
We’re a long way from runoff, or even what typically qualifies as the season’s best skiing. But at the end of the first quarter, it’s shaping up to be a decent winter, for the most part.
With any luck, it will only get better from here.