Snow news good news for Colorado River area
Forecast calls for 120 percent of normal inflow
A snowy January on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains has water managers crossing their fingers for something they haven’t seen for a while: a truly wet year on the Colorado River.
The latest forecast calls for the river to receive 120 percent of its normal inflow from melting mountain snow. If that prediction comes to pass, 2008 would go down as the best year on the Colorado in more than a decade.
“Things are raging in Arizona as far as really great snowpack,” said federal water supply forecaster Tom Pagano. “Southern Colorado and Utah also look great.
“We’re pretty thrilled.”
As of Tuesday, snow levels were above average by as much as 56 percent in parts of central and western Colorado credited with supplying large amounts of water to the river system.
Elsewhere in the high country of Colorado, Utah and Arizona, the snowpack is almost double what it normally is this time of year with more winter storms in the forecast for this weekend… [more]