Storms Boost Snowpack In Northern Colorado Mountains

DENVER (AP) - March storms substantially boosted the snowpack in Colorado's northern and central mountains, but sparse snowfall in the southern mountains reduced that region's levels.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service says the snowpack statewide on the first of April was 113 percent of average, down slightly from a month ago.

But the federal agency's survey of the northern mountains shows the snowpack there is at its highest levels since 1996. The North Platte River Basin's reading was 135 percent of average, the highest basinwide total.

In southern Colorado's Rio Grande basin, the snowpack is only 76 percent of average. That's still better than the 66 percent of average it showed this time last year.

The percentages are measured against a 30-year average. Melting snow supplies much of the state's water.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)