January 4, 2008--Weather baffles forecasters (Durango Herald)
The winter of 2007-08 is off to a puzzling start in the minds of Colorado weather experts. "It's definitely got some of us scratching our heads," said Mike Gillespie, the snow survey supervisor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service in Lakewood. According to Gillespie's office, snowpack statewide in the Colorado high country is 110 percent of average, and the numbers are even more encouraging in the southwest part of the state. Snowpack in the San Juan, Animas and Dolores river basins Jan. 1 was 129 percent of its 30-year average and 67 percent above the same date last year. Measurements are taken at 16 different points throughout the San Juan Mountains. Gillespie said the latest measurements are unexpected because this was to be a La Niña year, which traditionally means less snow in the southern parts of Colorado and higher accumulations up north. So far, that trend is completely reversed, because the lowest snowpack in Colorado is in the Yampa and White river basins where levels are 85 percent of normal. The only other two areas below average are the North and South Platte river basins, at 93 percent and 90 percent, respectively.
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