We want to thank our friends and Business Members at Land Design 39  for sponsoring our April Snowpack and River Reports.

April 8, 2021 at 10:30am

SUMMARY

Spring runoff has begun! The warm temperatures and sunny days melted a lot of snow over the last week. Snowpack in the Roaring Fork Watershed is 81% of normal for this time of the year. For comparison, it was 95% one week ago. Some of the snow is sublimating, evaporating before it becomes a liquid. Of the snow that is melting, much of it is quenching thirsty soils and plants, while also giving a boost to local streams. Stream flows across the Roaring Fork Watershed increased over the last week and are flowing 70-87% of normal for this time of the year. What do these percentages mean, exactly? These numbers are a function of statistics, and 100% of normal is average. Anything below 100% of normal is below average for this specific time of the year, based on a 30-year average (from data collected between 1981-2010).