Statewide snowpack is still well behind average, and even further behind last year at the same time, but it's slowly improving, Natural Resource Conservation Service officials say.

Snow in February was not enough to drag the state out of a lingering drought. Most of Colorado is now classified as under drought conditions, according to a report by the state’s water availability task force, which met last week in Denver. “Early February precipitation in parts of the state has helped to increase snowpack levels somewhat.

Even though it feels like winter is just getting started in the high country, Colorado water managers are starting to think about spring runoff, flooding and water storage. Denver Water will issue its first spring reservoir outlook early next month after the March 1 snowpack figures have been compiled, and the National Weather Service this week issued its first outlook for flood potential.

Low season flows into Lake Powell have been near normal in recent weeks, with the Colorado River delivering about 356,000 acre feet (99 percent of average) during January, leaving the reservoir about 63 feet below full pool.

Colorado’s skimpy snowpack is setting off alarm bells for U.S. Reps. Cory Gardner and Scott Tipton. But not because they interpret the drought as a sign of human-caused climate change. The way they see it, Congress should slash environmental protections — not strengthen them.

The National Weather Service reported 11 inches of snow about eight miles east of Steamboat Springs and 10 inches in parts of Eagle and Summit counties Sunday morning. In southwest Colorado, three sections of U.S. 550 were closed Sunday morning due to avalanches. Adverse conditions temporarily closed U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass and a section of U.S. 285 over Kenosha Pass.

A steady decline in Rocky Mountain snowpack the past few decades has led to a classic cascading ecological effect, with “powerful” shifts in mountainous plant and bird communities, according to scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Montana.

Nationwide, the lack of snow is costing tens of millions of dollars in winter recreation, restaurant, lodging and sporting goods sales, experts said. “Early in the winter, the Southwest saw some heavy snow, as did parts of the Northeast clobbered by snow around Halloween and Thanksgiving that has since melted. The Pacific Northwest has seen snow recently.