COLORADO (KOAA) — Our snowpack is very important to Colorado, and will help to keep the rivers flowing at good levels through the summertime months. It also helps to keep the ground moist, and keep drought conditions at bay. This year, with record low snowpack, river levels are already dropping.
Our snowpack peaked on March 7, which is about four weeks earlier than normal. Since then the warm and dry conditions that we have been having have caused a sharp drop off in those levels. Even with some recent snowfall in the mountains, it was only enough to keep us afloat.
In order to keep these levels from dropping further, we would need constant rain and snow.
Colorado has weather stations set up around the state, and currently 95% sites are reporting the lowest or second lowest snow water equivalent values on record.
The National Weather Service has released their April through September forecast for how much water or streamflow certain rivers will have. The forecast for Canon City is only 39% of the normal streamflow. If we were at 100%, everything would be right at normal. Above the Pueblo reservoir 40% of the streamflow is expected.
The USGS Website has cameras that watch the Arkansas River and tracks the river levels. You can access that data here.
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