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ASPEN — On a sunny day in mid-April, scientist Jeff Deems strapped on his backcountry skis, tromped out to a snow-covered field and began digging. “I was expecting there to be a little more than 70...
Laser technology is being used to more accurately measure mountain snowpack — crucial information for farmers and water managers in drought-stricken areas like the Colorado River Basin.
Outdoors columnist Ted Mahon attempts to make sense of the dust on snow phenomenon with help from Jeff Deems of CU’s National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Conditions in context: snow cover Snow-covered area for the 2021 water year continued to decrease rapidly in May (Figure 1, left). A storm in Montana in the third week of May interrupted the rapid melt temporarily before it resumed in the last week of May. Similar to April, snow-covered area in May has low year-to-year variability because snow remains mostly at higher, colder elevations. Still, snow cover was very low (Table 1). Below average snow-covered area in the western United States spanned large areas in California, southern Oregon, and Utah (Figure 1, right). Locations on the eastern ...
Snowfall in the West indicates 20-year drought will persist and intensify April 15, 2021 Researchers with the University of Colorado work on the 2019 snow survey in the Green Lakes Valley, which includes the Arikaree Glacier and provides a substantial portion of the water supply for Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Kodas/Inside Climate News) Sparse monsoon rainfall last summer and spotty snowfall this winter have combined to dramatically worsen the drought across the West in the past year, and spring snowmelt won’t bring much relief. Critical April 1 measurements of snow accumulations ...