Colorado Water
The month of May turned out to be one of the driest on record, according to the Rocky Mountain News [June 3, 2004, "Drought relief dries up along with snow"]. From the article, "(Mike) Gillespie said this year's complete snow melt is expected to occur early this month throughout most of Colorado. If that's the case, the snow melt will be nearly a month earlier than in an average year. Moreover, Colorado's snowpack totals reached their top levels earlier in the winter than usual and were substantially less than the average peak accumulations, the conservation service, which is under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, reported. For instance, the conservation service noted that the snowpack for 2004 hit its maximum accumulation on March 8. Yet, at the time it was only at 78 percent of the average peak. In an average year Colorado does not reach the maximum snowpack until mid-April. Early April rain and snowstorms did give some relief from this year's drought, especially after 18 inches of snow fell on the foothills and caused a snowpack hike that reached 76 percent of average. Ultimately, however, it wasn't nearly enough."
6:48:04 AM 
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