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Area snowpack soars over eight days

Scott Condon
The Aspen Times

What a difference a week made.

The area’s snowpack was already at or above average as of early Thursday morning, Jan. 30. Now the snowpack is soaring after the three-foot blast a storm dumped during three days last week and a steady diet of snow ever since.

Here are the comparisons at the automated Snotel sites in the Roaring Fork River basin maintained by the Natural Resources Conservation Service:



The snowpack at the Independence Pass site east of Aspen went from 113 percent of average on Jan. 30 to 123 percent of average as of 10 a.m. Feb. 7.

The Fryingpan Valley was the big winner of the storm. Snow at lower elevations was below average until this most recent storm cycle.



The Nast Lake site went from below average at 93 percent on Jan. 30 to 129 percent Friday. The Kiln site went from 103 percent of average on Jan. 30 to 128 percent on Feb. 7. The Ivanhoe site, at 10,400 feet in elevation, shot up from 116 percent of average on Jan. 30 to 147 percent of average Feb. 7.

The storms haven’t been quite as bountiful for the Crystal Valley snowpack despite the relatively close distance. The North Lost Trail site near Marble measured a snowpack only 89 percent of average on Jan. 30. That climbed above average to 104 percent on Feb. 7. McClure Pass was at only 94 percent of average in late January but now stands at 114 percent. Schofield Pass went from 99 percent to 115 percent.

The Roaring Fork River basin’s snowpack overall sat at 101 percent of normal on Jan. 30 after an extended sunny and dry stretch. That’s skyrocketed to 120 percent overall as of Friday morning.

The average snowpack for Colorado as a whole soared from 95 percent of average on Jan. 27 to 109 percent on Feb. 1, the Vail Daily reported.

scondon@aspentimes.com


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