Snowpack is peaking higher than usual

Spring floods a concern

BY SHANNON MULLANE THE COLORADO SUN

Colorado’s snow season is nearing its typical peak with above-average snowpack, and water o cials are beginning to worry about ooding and gauging potential reservoir releases. But in some places, the snow just keeps coming.

Each year, April marks the point in the season when the snowpack starts to reach its peak as temperatures warm and spring runo begins. It’s also an important point for water o cials, water users and even emergency managers: How high the snow piles up is a key indicator of water supply for the next year, but how fast it melts can have big impacts on ooding and seasonal irrigation.

“We do anticipate high water,” said Sgt. Todd Wheeler, emergency management coordinator for Mo at County in northwestern Colorado. “Will it be higher than normal? at remains to be seen.”

In the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water to 40 million people spread across seven Western states and 30 Native American tribes, the snowpack was above average as it reached its seasonal peak.

In the Upper Colorado Region, which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah, the snowpack usually peaks around April 8, and on ursday, it was about 160% recorded since 1986. e Lower Colorado Region, which includes Arizona, California and Nevada, was at 446% of the historical median as of ursday. e above-average snow is welcome news for the parched basin, which is facing its worst drought in 1,200 years. However the basin’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, will need to see this kind of snowfall for multiple years to recover from the impacts of prolonged drought and overuse, experts say. e water levels at Lake Mead are even projected to fall further this year, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

“While this year has been really good news in terms of above-average snowpack and above-average stream ows into Lake Powell over the summer, it’s not enough to