Why average snowpack in Colorado is something to celebrate this year

Let's get to the good news: Colorado got snow this year, and it's going to help fill up our reservoirs, some of them almost to average! Yes, that doesn't sound great, but considering our last few years, the average is something to celebrate. 

Travis Thompson, Denver Water spokesperson, pointed to the snowpack just starting to melt into the Colorado River Basin, where he said Denver gets about half its water. 

If these next rounds of storms coming through are able to drop off some moisture, our pack levels will likely hit 100% normal and we'd be in good shape, for this year at least. 

"We're still in a very challenging time as far as the drought goes. The Colorado River Basin has seen extended drought for the last two decades," Thompson said. "While we're excited to see one good snowpack season,  it doesn't mean that we can get lazy with conservation and all the other efforts and great progress that we've been making."

Another part of this will boil down to consistency; the steady pace of melting helps guarantee the water makes it to where we need it to make it, instead of going past it with flooding or going too slowly and only soaking into the nearby ground. 

"It gives more time for our reservoirs to fill in a way that allows us to prolong the storage," Thompson said. "We're really hoping that you know, we keep seeing some of these sporadic storms throughout the spring like we typically do that kind of prolong the runoff season."

Yes, this year has had some historic snowfall stories hit the airwaves like ski resorts with chairlifts covered in snow near Lake Tahoe. 

But in Colorado, it's more spread out, some parts got hammered, like the San Juan Mountain Range, and some parts of Colorado got what they usually got, or even less in some spots. To look at an overall state average would to be instilling a false sense of confidence, Thompson said. So keep doing what you can to save water in our thirsty state, because we are going to need it.