Though snow has been falling in Colorado’s mountain playgrounds for the last few days, the state still remains mired in a drought.
As things stand now, many of Colorado’s river basins are still waiting for winter — or even spring — wallops. As of Tuesday, snowpack across the state was 76 percent of average — and that comes after a weekend of storms.
There is still the prospect of moisture-laden storms in March and April, but coming off a dry 2012, we’re not anywhere close to where we want — or need — to be as far as snowpack.
“Severe” to “exceptional” drought conditions exist across the entire state, according to the .
In Fort Collins, officials are already making plans to impose watering restrictions and shut off public fountains.
Denver Water, which serves more than 1.3 million people in Denver and the surrounding suburbs, is not contemplating mandatory watering restrictions just yet, spokeswoman Stacy Chesney told us last week. But the agency is always pushing people to pay attention to how much water they use.
“We live in a dry climate and that means water always needs to be used wisely,” Chesney said.
Snowpack in the South Platte and Colorado River basins, which feed the majority of the Front Range, were at was 59 percent and 70 percent of the historical averages as of Tuesday.
Reservoirs that store Denver Water’s supply are
Short of cloud-seeding and appealing to higher powers, we can’t do much about bringing on more snow. But we all can — and should — take steps to limit our water use. Doing so makes sense for both the short and long term.
Denver Water, as an example, offers for different fixtures, including installing high-efficiency toilets and washing machines. So do many other utilities.
