From The Mountain Mail (Joe Stone):
Colorado snowpack stood at 6 percent of average Nov. 14, “the worst start to the mountain snowpack season since at least 1986,” the first year for which daily snowpack measurements were recorded.
Brian Domonkos, snow survey supervisor with the Natural Resources Conservation Service Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting Program, delivered the bad news at the Nov. 15 meeting of the Governor’s Water Availability Task Force.
Even with a recent storm, snowpack remains at 14 percent of median in the Arkansas River Basin as of Monday, according to the NRCS snowpack report.
Becky Bolinger, a drought specialist with the Colorado Climate Center, reported weak La Niña conditions contributed to the “well-below-normal precipitation” and above-average temperatures in October and the first half of November.
“October was the third warmest on record, and temperatures across the state through Nov. 14 ranged from 4 to 10 degrees above normal,” she said.
Domonkos reported that water-year mountain precipitation stands at 34 percent of average, and the lack of precipitation is negatively affecting the winter wheat crop. However, statewide reservoir levels are at 104 percent of average. (The water year, based in part on irrigation season, begins in October and ends in September.)
For the Arkansas River Basin, the surface water supply currently rates “above normal,” as reported by the Office of the State Engineer.
Water providers attending the meeting reported water storage levels ranging from 70 to 123 percent of average with above-average attributable to warm temperatures.
The U.S. Drought Monitor shows severe drought in Larimer and Lincoln counties with moderate drought for most of the state. Less than 2 percent of Colorado, the northwest corner of the state, is currently drought-free.
Bolinger said La Niña conditions may be gone by 2017, and forecasts give Colorado equal chances for moisture through late winter with a chance for extra moisture in December and “near-normal moisture” for the next 2 weeks.