Drought persists, despite early snow in mountains

Snowfall on the state's mountain peaks in August? That's exactly what happened early on Friday with the passing of a cold front.

According to National Weather Service meteorologist Troy Lindquist, light snow fell in many Colorado locations above 10,000 feet and one mountainous area near Steamboat Springs received four inches.

But while Friday's dusting on area peaks was somewhat unusual, the state's five-year drought is still hanging around.

According to the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nev., Glenwood Springs saw 5.4 inches of precipitation - mostly rain - from April through August 27. That's 0.1 inch above the average for that time period.

One troubling aspect of the summer's precipitation, however, is that there has only been trace amounts of rain during the month, according to Glenwood Springs' official precipitation tracker, radio station KMTS.

While the rain kept things wet enough to keep things green and keep large wildfires at bay during most of the summer, it has done little to ease the drought.

"It has shown a slight improvement, but to really see some real improvement, it's going to take several years of above-normal precipitation," Lindquist said. "If we get a lot of precipitation one month, that's sort of a short-term fix."

The National Weather Service is predicting near-normal precipitation in the next 90 days, he said.

Colorado River Water Conservation District engineer Dave Merritt in Glenwood Springs agreed with Lindquist that while the rain can help a little bit, the state is still mired in a drought.

"Our water supply comes in the form of snow," he said.

Colorado's water supply consists of 80 percent snowpack and just 20 percent rainfall.

"We're going to need a 1983-1984-type year again to get us out of this," he said.

That winter, remembered as one of the snowiest ever, the skies dumped nearly twice as much snow as what is considered average for the state.

Another factor that allows the drought to persist is what's called the soil-water deficit, Merritt said.

"What we've got over the five-year period is we've built up a heavy soil-water deficit," he said.

That means it takes more melted snow to recharge the groundwater supply each spring.

"So even with an average snowpack, you don't get an average runoff," he said.



Contact Greg Massé: 945-8515, ext. 511

gmasse@postindependent.com