Walden, Colorado — Hydrologist Maureen Gooch trudged through the slush and slush to confirm the bleak picture: Colorado had just seen its worst snowpack since statewide record-keeping began in 1941.
Even more alarming is that mountain snow accumulations peaked a month early and contained only half the average moisture.
As a warm winter with Poor ski conditions Make way for early spring Record temperatureSnow is disappearing from all but the highest elevations in the west. It is a clear sign that water shortages may exacerbate an ongoing problem Great droughtExcept for an unexpected flood.
Gooch struggled to adjust to the mood of sunny 56-degree (13.3-degree Celsius) weather while standing in a part of the Rocky Mountains that are the headwaters of the Colorado River.
“We love being out here. We love being in the snow, taking these measurements. This year, it’s kind of hard to enjoy it because it’s a little frustrating with the conditions that we’ve seen,” said Gooch, who works for the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Department hydrologists told The Associated Press about the dismal, record-low snowpack after completing their field assessments late Tuesday.
Cities in the region are imposing water restrictions, and ranchers are wondering how to feed and water their livestock. Meanwhile, the threat of devastating wildfires looms.
Ranchers in Colorado’s scenic mountain valleys near the Continental Divide are, in some ways, among the first in the region to be affected by the drought, being closest to the melting mountain snowpack.
They hardly need Gooch to tell them how dry it has been this winter and spring. They remember past droughts — the bad ones in 2002, 1981 and 1977 — and wonder what this dry winter will mean for their operations.
“I’ve never seen it get this warm this early and not snow all winter,” said Philip Anderson, a retired teacher who spent most of his life on a ranch in Colorado’s North Park Valley.
It snows heavily in the Rockies in late winter and early spring, including now. Snowfall is not unusual in higher areas until June.
Anderson Place is located at an elevation of about 8,100 feet (2,500 metres). There, in a typical year, a foot (30 cm) or more of snow will remain in his pastures until spring, helping to green up the grass and refill the water pools.
But without snow on the ground, his cows graze his grass before it grows tall, and many of his ponds dry up. The ditch that normally carries water from the nearby Illinois River to his property is also dry — already being tapped by neighbors with greater water rights than his.
“A lot of the people closest to the mountains have to let the water pass and let the people with the superior water rights have it,” Anderson said.
The last time Anderson had to haul water in his truck from a nearby wildlife refuge was in 2002. That same year, he had to sell his herd.
North Park—about 100 miles (161 kilometers) from the South Park valley that inspired the animated TV show—is the headwaters of the east-flowing Platte River system. Thirty-five miles (56 km) west of Anderson Place, across the Continental Divide, is the Stanko Ranch on the Yampa River.
Jo Stanko fears lower flows as she allows her cattle to wade through a tributary of the Colorado River. Then they must be rounded up and brought home.
This year, Stanko was watering her dry meadow earlier than at any time in her farm’s 50 years. She plans to cut hay before June, and is considering buying hay soon to feed her 70 cows next.
“Hay is always a good investment, because it can be very expensive,” she said.
There is a saying in the West that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over. This is especially true when water becomes scarce amid a decades-long drought, partly due to human-caused climate change.
Meanwhile, the upper river basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming remain deadlocked in negotiations with the lower basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada to set new rules for water management during shortages.
Time is running out, like water itself, as the current rules expire in September.
Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs said at a meeting of the US Chamber of Commerce last March that there is a recent federal plan aimed at conserving the river’s water “at the expense of the entire state of Arizona.”
Upper Basin countries say their cities, farmers and ranchers already use much less water than they are entitled to under current agreements. That’s because they respect upper water rights — some of which date back to the 1880s — ahead of those with new rights during droughts, Becky Mitchell, the Colorado River negotiator for Colorado, recently told other upper basin representatives.
“When there is less, we use less. This is not voluntary and no one gets paid as a result,” Mitchell said.
After missing multiple deadlines set by federal officials in recent months to at least outline the agreement, both sides are hiring more lawyers in case the dispute goes to court.
After the driest and warmest winter on record, Salt Lake City announced a 10% reduction in daily water use.
The reductions will be voluntary for residents, but the largest non-resident water users will consume no more than 200,000 gallons (2.6 million liters) per day.
On the other side of the Rocky Mountains, Denver Water agreed to impose lawn watering and other restrictions, hoping to achieve a 20% reduction.
Water officials urged reducing irrigation. They noted that lawns in the Front Range area are just starting to turn green and do not need to be watered twice a week until at least mid-May.
The city gets most of its water from mountain snow that accumulates east of the Continental Divide and on the west side. Tunnels under the mountains divert half of the city’s water from snow-fed streams on the west side.
“We have 7 to 8 feet (2 to 2.4 meters) of snow below where we should be,” Nathan Elder, director of water supply for Denver Water, said in a statement. “It would take a tremendous amount of snow to recover at this point, so it’s time to turn our attention to preserving what we have.”
On the same day that Denver approved water restrictions, the city set a new high temperature record for March: 87 degrees (30 degrees Celsius).
The previous record of 85 degrees (29°C) was set just one week ago.
Drought was hitting the western Rockies as well. In California, snowpack in the Sierra Nevada was only 18% of average for this time of year. State data showed.
Hot, dry weather is a recipe for wildfires. While other parts of the United States, including the South and Southwest, face greater fire risk this spring, forecasters expect the threat to rise in the Rocky Mountains as above-average temperatures and below-normal summer precipitation persist.
This week the region is experiencing a period of cold and wet weather, with snow expected to return by the end of the week in North Park. But Anderson said it needs more — half an inch (1 cm) of rain every day for several days — to emerge from the drought.
Until then, he suggested North Park water rights holders large and small work together to ensure everyone gets enough.
“It’s very dangerous,” Anderson said. “If we talk and communicate and cooperate, maybe we can get through this. But we’ll see.”
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Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California contributed.
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