From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
So far, snowpack good, but it’s too soon to get excited
Snow. If you’re a child, it’s a blank canvas for winter fun. If you ski or snowboard, it’s the essential ingredient for recreation.
If you drive in the mountains, it can be a hazard or inconvenience.
But if you drink water and live in Colorado, snow is 75-80 percent of the water supply for the state. The early results for 2016 point to an average year ahead, so far. But anyone who has watched snowpack for long would be cautious making any projections because the snow doesn’t really start to pile up before March.
“What I see is kind of discouraging,” said Rick Sexton, caretaker at Clear Creek Reservoir for the Pueblo Board of Water Works. “But I haven’t been out in the field. So I don’t have any real good info.”
Part of Sexton’s job is to measure snow courses at sites in the Pueblo Water collection system. But that won’t start until the end of this month.
The data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service shows that snow water equivalent for the state is right about at normal, ranging from 94 percent in the northwest corner to 121 percent of median. The Arkansas River basin is at 118 percent and the Rio Grande basin at 120 percent.
Those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“It’s one thing if you normally measure 9 inches and you get 14. It’s more than a site that normally has next to nothing and gets a couple of inches, but shows up as a bigger percentage,” Sexton explained. “Later in the year, you’re looking at bigger numbers.”
Snow depth in the mountains is about 2-3 feet across the state, with the deepest measurement at more than 6 feet at Wolf Creek.
Looking ahead, there will be a chance for snow Thursday and Friday in Pueblo and the surrounding area.
Long-term, El Nino conditions are expected to continue throughout the spring, meaning above-average precipitation, normal temperatures and higher snow totals likely in the southern part of the state.