35% of the Lower 48 is short/very short, 6% less than last week. Soil moisture conditions improved in much of the U.S. this week. The exceptions? ME, NH, FL, AR, LA, WY, NV. Dry soils persist in the NE & Northern Rockies.
Click the link to read the article on the Summit Daily website (Robert Tann). Here’s an excerpt:
November 29, 2024
Snowpack levels in Colorado continue to outperform past years, with the latest surge driven by an intense series of winter storms that brought multiple feet of fresh snow across the High Country…Statewide snowpack levels reached 134% of the 30-year-median as of Friday, Nov. 29, according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. It’s the highest level for this time of year in the past 10 years…River basins with the highest snowpack levels are concentrated in the southern half of the state, with snowpack in the Arkansas River Basin — which stretches from north of Colorado Springs to the New Mexico border — standing at nearly 200% of normal as of Friday. The central-mountain Colorado Headwaters River basin stood at 134% while the Yampa-White-Little Snake River Basin — which includes Steamboat Springs — stood at 103%. Snowpack levels typically peak in April, though the dates vary by basin…
Back-to-back storms late last week and through Wednesday have helped ski areas open acres of new terrain, with Copper Mountain becoming the first resort in Colorado to net 100 inches of snowfall this season.
Click the link to read the article on the Steamboat Pilot & Today website (Ali Longwell). Here’s an excerpt:
November 29, 2024
Last week, the governmental entity created to represent Western Slope water users submitted its 600-page application for $40 million from the Inflation Reduction Act, which allocated $4 billion toward drought mitigation efforts. The application falls under the Bureau of Reclamation’s Upper Colorado River Basin Environmental Drought Mitigation funding opportunity, also known as the Bucket 2E funding. The $40 million would go a long way toward the $98.5 million needed for the Colorado River District to purchase the water rights from Xcel Energy. So far, the district has raised around $56.9 million from the state legislature, its board and the various Western Slope municipalities and utilities it serves.
While the district’s request for federal dollars has received support from the majority of Colorado’s federal congressional delegation, the Inflation Reduction Act is likely to be targeted by Trump as he takes office in January. While the president-elect is unlikely to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act completely, he has promised to rescind any unspent funds under the act. The bureau is expected to award the Bucket 2E grants in the spring…Regardless of this uncertainty, Amy Moyer, the Colorado River District’s director of strategic partnerships, said the district “remains steadfast in its commitment to securing the Shoshone water rights and protecting the long-term health of the Colorado River.”