From The Wet Mountain Tribune (Doris Dembosky):
As of Monday, February 15, the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District reported that the weight gauging “snow pillow” at South Colony measured the equivalent of 13.6 inches of water. This number is 103 percent of normal to date. Automated reporting allows for real-time, daily reporting. In the case of the Arkansas River Drainage, snowmelt is 114 percent of average.
A “snow pillow” is a rubber sphere filled with a 50/50 antifreeze solution of water and ethanol. Although the pillow is a preferential measure, a layer of frozen ice, lateral pressure, and blowing snow can inflate the statistics. Conversely, a fierce wind can scour snow off the pillow and deflate the numbers.
With warmer water in the Pacific Ocean and El Nino bearing down, Colorado is expected to have heavier snows in March and April and wetter weather into spring.
