Farmers in southeast Colorado are pleased with the recent snowfall, despite having to fight the drifts to feed cattle, according to the Pueblo Chieftain. So what's the snowpack look like down south? From the article, "The December snowstorms helped build up the moisture content in the soil, [farmer Dale Mauch] explained. The 5-6 inches of moisture content in the most recent snow will be added to more than 20 inches of rain that fell last year in the Lamar area - almost all of it after farmers already had prepared for another year of drought...
"While the storm dumped on the southern mountains and Eastern Plains, it did not have much impact on snowpack in the upper parts of the Arkansas Basin or in the Upper Colorado, which provides water imports for the Arkansas Valley. Overall, snowpack in the Arkansas Basin is at 130 percent of average, and right at average in the Upper Colorado...
"Winter water storage in Lake Pueblo, an indicator of how much water is in the river during the winter months, is still a little below the 17-year average, but well above levels seen since 2001, [Water Division 2 Engineer Steve Witte] said...
"Lake Pueblo storage is only about 88 percent of average because of five years of depletion, and a lot depends on what happens later in spring, particularly March and April, when the greatest snowpack accumulates in the mountains."
Category: Colorado Water
6:04:48 AM 
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