Water's up - fire danger, too
Reservoirs 98% full, but lower elevations are dry as kindling
Betty Abah, Rocky Mountain News
Published April 21, 2006 at midnight
Colorado faces a warm, dry spring and summer, a forecast that doesn't bode well for the wildfire season along the Front Range foothills and southern part of the state.
That was the prediction officials presented the Colorado drought task force in a briefing Thursday afternoon.
Though there is plenty of water in the state's reservoirs, thanks to abundant high-country snows and strong stream runoff forecasts, lower elevations of the state remain dry and fire-prone.
Despite the bleak forecast, Colorado's drought recovery continues. Just 13 percent of the state is now classified as being in a drought, down significantly from the scorching summer of 2002, when more than 85 percent of the state was bone dry, according to state climatologist Roger Pielke.
"The fire danger (through September) is as bad as ever before - just like 2002," said climate expert Klaus Wolter. "We are luckier this time because we have more capital to spend and there is more snow (this) spring, about two times more than 2002."
But to Wolter, April's hot, windy weather is a bad sign.
In Colorado, more than 80 percent of the annual water supply derives from mountain snows. Since 1998, however, the state has experienced below average snowpacks every year except in 2005.
This spring, for instance, the snowpack is 94 percent of average. The good news is that Colorado's recovery from the drought continues, with reservoirs 98 percent full, according to the Colorado Division of Water Resources.
Nevertheless, weather officials said the dry forecast and uncertainty about spring rain is worrisome.
"April has been a precipitation and temperature roller-coaster ride," said meteorologist John Henz. He predicted it will be stormy, cool and stable for the next three weeks.
"A storm in the next three weeks is important," he said. "We need that springtime precipitation."
Featured
-
DNC in Denver
Complete coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
-
The Crevasse
A five-part series that examines one tragic day on Mount Rainier.
-
Deadly denial
Sick nuclear workers applied for government compensation but most haven't seen a dime.
-
Final Salute
The Rocky followed Maj. Steve Beck as he took on the most difficult duty of his career.
-
'Colorado's burning'
Coverage of the state's worst wildfires.
-
Columbine shootings
Coverage of the April 20, 1999, shootings at Littleton's Columbine High School.
-
The Crossing
Colorado's deadliest traffic accident killed 20 children on Dec. 14, 1961.
-
Osveli's journey
Osveli Sales left Guatemala for a better life. Two months later, he came home in a box.
-
Wake for an Indian warrior
Oglala Sioux bestow a tribute to the first tribal fatality in Iraq.
