![]() ![]() “We would need five or six years at 150% snowpack to refill these reservoirs. “It's great to see a big snowpack,” Udall said. Even if those numbers persist until spring, the severity of the Colorado River’s drought means many more years of heavy snow are needed to make a serious dent. In other nearby mountain ranges, snow totals are between 140% and 160% of average. The Roaring Fork watershed, which includes Aspen and Snowmass, makes up only 0.5% of the landmass in the Colorado River basin but provides about 10% of its water. Around Snowmass, the snowpack is 130% of average for this time of the year. Meanwhile, mountain snow totals are off to a promising start. However, warm temperatures and dry soil are steadily reducing the amount of snowmelt that makes its way into the river, which supplies 40 million people across the Southwest. KUNC More than two thirds of the Colorado River begins as snow in the state of Colorado. Those reservoirs have dropped to historic lows - jeopardizing hydropower for millions of people and threatening the need for costly modifications to the towering dams that hold the water back. More eyes are now turning to the snow-laden mountains that keep the river flowing and help to fill the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. That has created a yawning supply-demand imbalance for a multibillion-dollar agriculture sector and large cities - such as Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles - that depend on the river’s water. A 23-year “megadrought” has created the region’s driest conditions since around 200 A.D. ![]() The Colorado River is in crisis, shrinking at the hands of climate change. “Invariably, you'll get caught with your pants down if you think you know what's going to happen.” ![]() “Everybody is so eager to make an early call on this,” said Brad Udall, a water and climate researcher at Colorado State University. This year, totals are well above average, but climate scientists say there’s a lot of winter left. More than two-thirds of the river begins as snow in Colorado. Before water flows through rivers, pipelines and canals to cities and farms across the region, it starts as high-altitude snow. The flakes that pile up high in the Rockies are crucial for the Colorado River - a water lifeline for people from Wyoming to Mexico in an area commonly referred to as the Colorado River basin. Climate scientists, though, say the 40 million people who use the river’s water should take the good news with a grain of salt. That’s good news for the Colorado River, where all that moisture hints at a possible springtime boost for massive reservoirs that have been crippled by drought. An “atmospheric river” has pummeled California with weeks of heavy rain, and the Rocky Mountains are getting buried with snow. This winter, the West has been slammed by wet weather. ![]()
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