The Water Information Program

Snow and cold weather might make it seem like climate change doesn't affect Colorado, but a U.S. Geological Survey scientist says that the state's runoff season will see dramatic mood swings in coming decades. David Clow of the USGS told members of the Colorado Water Congress on Thursday that global warming doesn't yet seem to be affecting Colorado's snowpack dramatically, but that runoff already occurs two weeks earlier than it did 27 years ago. By the end of the century, runoff could come a full month earlier than it will this year, he said. Clow said that scientists don't know exactly how climate change will affect temperatures in Colorado, but that they do know temperatures will increase more dramatically in the middle of large land masses, such as North America.
 

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