Colorado snowpack tops 140% in good year

Reservoirs remain low

BY JERD SMITH FRESH WATER NEWS

Colorado is awash in white this spring, with statewide snowpack topping 140% of average this week, well above the reading a year ago, when it stood at just 97% of nor-

“Conditions in the American West are way better than they were last year at this time,” state climatologist Russ Schumacher said at a recent joint meeting of the Water Availability Task Force and the Governor’s Flood Task Force. “In Colorado we went from drought covering most of the state to most of the state being out of drought.”

Like other Western states, mountain snowpacks in Colorado are closely monitored because as they melt in the spring and summer, their runo delivers much of the state’s water.