#Colorado isn’t getting enough snow to fully recover #drought-stricken rivers and reservoirs: Winter snowfall started off strong in late December and early January but lost momentum in the following weeks — The #Denver Post #snowpack

Click the link to read the article on The Denver Post website (Conrad Swanson). Here’s an excerpt:

For a glimpse of the bigger picture across the American West, [Becky] Bolinger, also a climatologist with Colorado State University, pointed to the Lake Powell Reservoir, which is already at a record low.

“We’re not going to recover,” she said.

A drought like the one enveloping the West, which has lasted for two decades, needs much more than a single winter of average snowfall to bounce back, Bolinger said.

Winter snowfall started off strong in late December and early January but lost momentum in the following weeks.

Snowpack data shows that accumulation around Gunnison and Ouray sit at 109% of normal levels, down from 148% in early January. Snowpack around Durango sits at 101% of normal, down from 137%. Levels around Aspen and Glenwood Springs are 100% of normal, down from 124% in early January and the area around Steamboat Springs sits at 88%, down from 115%, according to the data, collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Snowpack around Denver sits at 96%, down from 114%…

More than 90% of the state is considered to be in a drought, according to data released Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center. The rest of the state is still considered abnormally dry.