DENVER-
A wild storm that unleashed rain, hail and snow in parts of Colorado gave a slight boost to the statewide snowpack but did little good in the mountains, the source of much of the water that feeds the region.
The National Weather Service said more than 2 feet of snow fell in parts of the foothills west of Denver Tuesday, and some spots on the Eastern Plains got up to 5 inches of rain, more than the monthly average for April.
The South Platte River overflowed its banks near Platteville in northern Colorado, prompting members of one household to leave Wednesday, Weld County sheriff’s spokeswoman Margie Martinez said. They were able to drive through the water, a couple of feet deep in spots, in their own vehicles.
Television images showed water rippling across pasture land.
The water reached the bottom of the bridge of Colorado 66, but the road was still open, she said.
But the statewide snowpack stood at only 76 percent of the 30-year average Wednesday, the same as a year ago. The total rose slightly from 73 percent from Monday.
The South Platte and Arkansas river basins in eastern Colorado were at or slightly above 100 percent of average, but basins in western Colorado ranged from 57 percent to 82 percent.
Eight major Colorado river systems, fueled partly by snowmelt, provide water to 10 Western states.
“This definitely has been a Front Range and Eastern Plains storm and not a big mountain storm,” said state climatologist Nolan Doesken. “So the idea that this is really adding to the snowpack and adding to the water summer supply is really not quite true.”
The storm does buy the state some time, delaying the need for eastern Coloradans to draw heavily on water in reservoirs, some of which are filled by diversions from rivers in the western part of the state.
The outlook was more optimistic earlier in the year after Colorado, grappling with drought for at least six years, was pounded by back-to-back blizzards in the east and big snowfalls in the mountains.
But the snowpack levels fell from early February to April. The culprit was drier- and warmer-than-normal weather in March.
“We saw a pretty significant decrease in snowpack in March,” said Mike Gillespie of the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service in Denver.
Early runoff means the water may be gone by the time farmers need it later in the year. It also could bring rivers to their peak before rafters are ready to book their trips.
The snow doesn’t typically finish melting in the southwestern mountains until the first of July and mid-July in the northwestern mountains. Gillespie said the snow could be gone as early as the first of June in both areas this year.
“We are going to be very dependent on rainfall for precipitation for the spring and summer,” said Tom Compton, a rancher in Hesperus in southwestern Colorado.
The irrigation water Compton uses for his pastures comes from melting snow and he figures the water will run out early this summer. Moisture late last summer and in the fall helped the area, which has been hit hard by the drought, but below-average snowfall and high winds are drying things out.
“We’ve had a long spate of dry weather, that’s for sure,” Compton said.
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On the Net:
Natural Resources Conservation Service, Colorado snowpack:
Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network:
