Icy beads of water are beginning to form and flow off the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado. As the droplets merge into tiny trickles, they are pulled on vast journeys to the rivers who carry them to the sea. Along Colorado’s Continental Divide, water droplets may embark on a nearly 1,900-mile journey down the […]
dolores river
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water
A Colorado town nearly ran out of drinking water. Experts say it’s a window into the future.
DOVE CREEK — Running out of drinking water was once unthinkable for Dove Creek, a 600-person town in southwest Colorado. Not anymore. A two-decade drought and years of poor snowpack in the San Juan Mountains have depleted McPhee Reservoir. A canal that delivers water to Dove Creek and growers nearby was shut down months early […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Water
Colorado heads into snowpack season with low reservoirs — but a twinge of hope
Drought conditions have eased up a bit from this time last year, but as the calendar turns on Colorado’s water year, worries about a dry winter still loom, the state’s assistant climatologist says. That’s not to say Colorado isn’t parched. Most of the state remains in drought, including the Eastern Plains, which spent much of […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Economy, Environment, News, Water
As drought in the West worsens, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado faces a dwindling water supply
TOWAOC — In late June, Simon Martinez drove along one of the dirt roads crisscrossing the parched rocky shrubland on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Farm & Ranch Enterprise, a 7,700-acre agricultural operation owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in the far southwestern corner of Colorado. In normal times, he would be driving past […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors, Water, Wildfire
Wildlife officials ask anglers not to fish the Dolores River for the first time ever as rain fails to dent Western Slope drought
Devastating drought and disappearing runoff in far southwestern Colorado have prompted state officials to seek voluntary fishing restrictions on the Dolores River for the first time, and fish and wildlife leaders say they have their eye on potential closures of the Animas and San Juan rivers as well. Intense rain over the weekend — generating […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News, Outdoors, Water, Wildfire
Northwest Colorado under “extremely critical” fire warning for first time in 15 years as Western Slope drought worsens
As drought conditions worsened on the Western Slope, the National Weather Service has issued its first “extremely critical” fire danger warning in 15 years for northwest Colorado. The warning, in effect through midnight, covers parts of Moffat and Rio Blanco counties that also are in a state of “exceptional drought,” according to the weekly U.S. […]
Posted inClimate, Environment, News
Colorado’s major snowstorm only made a dent in the drought. These maps and graphs explain what’s going on.
Despite what multiple feet of snow on the ground might suggest to many Coloradans, the state’s long-term drought remains persistent. And water forecasters are worried that even if the state receives decent spring moisture, Colorado and the greater American Southwest will need lots more to emerge from this drought. The record-breaking storms that buried Front […]