Colorado Snowpack Lagging, Though El Nino Pumps Up San Juan, Rio Grande Basin Prospects

[hatrack]

The seemingly endless run of January storms wasn’t enough to raise Colorado’s snowpack even to long-term average. Most of the storms hit southwestern Colorado, thanks to an El Nino weather pattern that tracks storms to the south. That means that while Telluride Ski Resort and Crested Butte Ski Resort enjoyed plenty of snowy days, most of the central and northern mountains were bypassed.

The result, said Allen Green, state conservationist with the National Resources Conservation Service, is the latest snow surveys show slightly above average totals in the southwestern mountains while snowpack percentages decreased elsewhere across the state. Green said Colorado’s statewide snowpack was 86 percent of average as of Feb. 1, which is 73 percent of last year’s snowpack totals on this same date. He said this month’s percentage is the lowest since 2003. Snowpack in the Colorado River basin declined by 9 percent since the Jan. 1 snow surveys.

A typical El Nino pattern pushes moisture inland from the California coast into Arizona and New Mexico. Green said these storms brushed southwestern Colorado but did not benefit basins to the north. The greatest increase in snowpack percentages was found in the Rio Grande and the combined San Juan, Animas, Dolores and San Miguel basins.

“The remainder of the state continued to stagnate with only minor increases during the latter half of January,” Green said. As the winter progresses, the outlook for water supplies continues to point toward below normal runoff volumes, especially in the river basins across northern Colorado, Green said. “The outlook for runoff in the Upper Colorado, North Platte, Yampa, White and South Platte rivers continues to call for well below average flows,” Green said.

EDIT

http://www.gjsentinel.com/outdoors/articles/el_ni241o_pushes_state_snowpac/

[joshcryer]

1. You wouldn't know this from how much snow we've gotten this year.

But we've also had an exceptionally warm winter. My window is currently open (it's only 36 degrees out but the sun hits my room, so it equals out).