New snowpack stirs hopes of plentiful water in 2007

But the experts say it's too early in the season to celebrate

Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 30, 2006 at midnight

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Local water watchers were elated, cautiously elated anyway, at the bounty brought by back-to- back snowstorms along Colorado's Front Range.

Both storms pushed up snowpack in river basins critical to Denver-area water supplies, perhaps setting the stage for another season of brimming reservoirs and a summer of plentiful water, pushing recent drought years further into memory.

As of Friday morning, before the snow had even stopped falling in the foothills, snowpack in the South Platte and Colorado river basins - the two most crucial to the metro area - were at 134 percent and 108 percent of average, respectively.

While this pleased the folks at Denver Water, they've been burned before by a cracker-dry springtime that steals away the snow crucial for summer water.

"We've learned the hard way . . . you don't get your hopes up," said Trina McGuire-Collier, spokeswoman for Denver Water, who nonetheless was encouraged by the snowfall.

"We rely more on snowpack in February, March and April," she said.

Equally cautious but still enthusiastic was Mike Gillespie, a snow surveyor for the federal government.

Friday he made his annual trek to the top of Berthoud Pass to measure snowpack at a traditional spot near the Continental Divide, about 100 yards off of U.S. 40.

The result: snowpack at 109 percent of average.

Like Denver Water, Gillespie knows it's early. In fact, he noted, we're just 40 percent of the way through the winter snow accumulation season.

He said snowpack accumulations at lower elevations along the Front Range are even higher, as a percent of average, at 200 percent in some places, because of the recent snowstorms.

That's good news.

But he cautions that the baseline snow levels at lower elevations are far less. That means 200 percent of average in the foothills is nowhere near the snow volume that 200 percent of average at higher elevations would be.

"It's been kind of an unusual year (with the big snowstorms), but a lot can happen," he said. "We're hoping that El Niño can deliver some moisture to the southern part of the state, where we're the driest."

The snowstorms did resolve one drought-related matter: Heading into December, Denver was poised to tie 2002 for its driest year ever, with only 7.48 inches of precipitation.

But all the moisture of the past week and a half took care of that. Frank Cooper of the National Weather Service said through 6 a.m. Friday, Denver's precipitation total for 2006 had climbed to 8.58 inches.

That sent 2006 "tumbling down the record books," Cooper said, leaving it in the 7th spot for all-time driest year.

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