The dust is back.
That reddish dirt — floating from Arizona, Utah and beyond — once again has blanketed the Western Slope, fueling prospects for a speedy melt-off and springtime avalanches.
While spring dust storms have become common in the past several years, the nine so far this season have been particularly bad.
“It’s been a more active year than I recall in my time over here,” said Doug Crowley, a nine-year forecaster with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction.
Dust does little good beyond delivering spectacular sunsets. Unblemished snow can reflect 100 percent of sunlight. But as dark pinkish muck piles up, snow absorbs sunshine and that speeds melting, sometimes by several weeks.
“The long-term issue for us . . . is the whole runoff season is shifting, and water is coming into streams before irrigators are really ready to put it on their fields,” said Jim Pokrandt, spokesman for the Colorado River Water Conservancy District.
The shorter run-off period is also a problem for those who use late-season flows or enjoy summertime whitewater recreation.
This season’s dirty storms began in December and the latest coated Colorado on April 3.
In the past six seasons, springtime dust storms have painted western Colorado in a pinkish hue. That tinge indicates the dust is coming from the brick-red soil of the Colorado Plateau, a 130,000-square-mile region covering parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
“It certainly seems like these dust events are happening more often, and I suspect it’s due to drier conditions in the desert and Southwest in recent years and the increased human activity in those areas,” said Dale Atkins, a Colorado snow scientist working for Recco avalanche rescue systems.
In the shorter term, the layers of dust in the snowpack create avalanche conditions. Snowfall atop the dust can slide on steep slopes, creating a higher danger level during the typically safer spring weeks.
Already the Colorado Avalanche Information Center has fielded reports of small slides on the dust layer from the last storm.
“We expect as we get into spring this really could be an issue,” said center forecaster John Snook.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
