Click the link to read the article on the Pagosa Springs Sun website (Clayton Chaney). Here’s an excerpt:
May 2, 2024
On April 30, the National Weather Service (NWS) released its drought outlook for May, which states “the last 4 weeks brought improvement to areas of drought in most of the Rock- ies and Intermountain West.” The outlook depicts much of New Mexico still with areas of persistent drought along with small portions of southern Colorado, including Archuleta County…According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of noon on April 30, all of Archuleta County is in an abnormally dry stage, with southwestern parts of the county in a D1 Level Moderate drought. For more information and current drought information, visit https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?fips_08007…
The state’s snowpack was at 114 percent of median on April 9, but, as of April 30, the state’s snowpack had fallen to 91 percent of median…
As of 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 30, the Wolf Creek summit, at 11,000 feet of elevation, had 21.8 inches of snow water equivalent, according to NRCS. The Wolf Creek summit was at 63 percent of the April 30 snowpack median. The San Miguel, Dolores, Animas and San Juan river basins were at 64 percent of median, according to the NRCS. The median snowpack peak date is April 2…
The South Platte basin had the highest snow water equivalent in the state at 104 percent of median as of Tuesday, April 30…
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the San Juan River was flowing at a rate of 538 cubic feet per second (cfs) in Pagosa Springs at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 30. Based on 88 years of water records, the median flow for that date is 712 cfs, with a record high flow of 2,090 cfs in 2019. The lowest recorded flow for that date is 127 cfs in 2002…
As of April 30 at 11 a.m., the Piedra River was flowing at a rate of 577 cfs, which is below the median flow rate of 813 cfs for that date, according to the USGS. The record high flow rate for that date was set in 1973 at 3,270 cfs, while the record low was set in 2002 at 97.7 cfs.
