It may be a new year, but Colorado’s statewide drought will be baggage it carries well into 2021. More than a quarter of the state is in the worst level of drought, and with snowpack significantly below what’s expected this time of year — especially on the Western Slope — scientists are warning that it […]
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Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Here’s why our Colorado communities are demanding climate justice
Former state Rep. Ken Summers is urging Coloradans to “dance” with the oil and gas industry. But to date, fossil fuel companies have proved to be unreliable partners. The industry has spent millions of dollars over the past several decades on lobbying and deceptive advertising to spread its destructive agenda and to block meaningful action […]
Posted inCOVID, Environment, News, Outdoors, Wildfire
Extreme drought conditions, coronavirus have Colorado wildfire managers anxious
High temperatures and an early snowmelt are causing growing drought worries in Colorado and have firefighters bracing for an unpredictable summer already complicated by the coronavirus. At least 76% of Colorado now is experiencing drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, with 11% of the state, mostly in southeast and south-central regions, under extreme […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors, Technology
We know the earth is warming. We know that will stress water in the West. But we don’t know how.
Flavio Lehner was a graduate student working with computer models simulating Earth’s climate at the University of Berne in Switzerland when he had a chance to join a research vessel collecting sea temperatures and measuring ocean currents between Greenland and Svalbard, Norway. “As a lifestyle, field work is very agreeable,” Lehner said. “But for me, […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, Environment, Outdoors, Water
How will Western water be affected by climate change? A tiny Colorado flower may have the answer
The question biologist Heidi Steltzer is trying to answer is this: How much water does the tiny prairie smoke – a diaphanous pink mountain flower – send into the sky? The answer could say a lot about how much water cities from Denver to Los Angeles will have as a changing climate tampers with the […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Water
Pocket of severe drought lingers over Southwest U.S., including Colorado
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Drought has yet to give up its hold over parts of the southwestern United States despite a series of storms that have brought rain and snow to the region in recent weeks. The latest federal map shows a pocket of moderate and severe drought centered over the Four Corners region — where Arizona, New Mexico, […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Stand-up paddler dies Saturday on Arkansas River, marking Colorado’s eighth water death of the season
BUENA VISTA — “Dude, that guy has been surfing all day long,” said Jon Donaldson as we kayaked through the Buena Vista whitewater park late Saturday afternoon. “I bet he’s tired.” The music was blaring from the town park. A beer fest was in full swing. And this guy was still shredding the wave at […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, News, Outdoors
“You fall in and you are not getting out”: Rio Grande in southern Colorado closed because of high runoff
DEL NORTE – Water is flowing so high and fast that recreational access to the Rio Grande river has been shut down indefinitely from near the headwaters around Creede through Del Norte, down to Alamosa and beyond. The river hit flood stage in Del Norte Wednesday afternoon, a condition that is forecast to persist at […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Outdoors, Water
Colorado’s rivers are starting to swell — but there are still feet of snow left to melt in the high country
There is still snow left to melt — feet deep in some areas — in Colorado’s high country as the state’s rivers begin to swell after one of the heaviest winters in recent memory. Forecasters say the Colorado, Yampa and Animas rivers in the western half of the state could be running above normal into […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, News, Outdoors
With snow still looming in the nearby San Juan Mountains, Lake City prepares for a deadly spring runoff
LAKE CITY — The San Juan Mountains loom white and ripe with an overloaded snowpack above this small town in south-central Colorado. Some 38 feet of snow fell in the San Juans this winter. Most of that snowpack, still nearly 200% more than normal, clings hard to the steep sides of the Continental Divide that […]