CODOS – Colorado Dust-On-Snow – WY 2009 Update #1, February 15, 2009
CODOS – Colorado Dust-on-Snow – WY 2009 Update #1, February 15, 2009 Greetings from Silverton, Colorado on the 3-year anniversary of the February 15, 2006 dust-on-snow event that played such a pivotal role in the early and intense snowmelt runoff of Spring 2006. This CODOS Update will kick off the Water Year 2009 series of Updates and Alerts designed to keep you apprised of dust- on-snow conditions in the Colorado mountains. We welcome two new CODOS program participants – Northern Colorado Water Conservation District and Animas-LaPlata Water Conservancy District – to our list of past and ongoing supporters – Colorado River Water Conservation District, Southwestern Water Conservation District, Rio Grande Water Conservation District, Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District, Tri-County Water Conservancy District, Denver Water, and Western Water Assessment-CIRES. This season we will issue “Updates” to inform you about observed dust layers in your watersheds, and how they are likely to influence snowmelt timing and rates in the near term, given the National Weather Service’s 7-10 forecast. We will also issue “Alerts” to give you a timely “heads up” about either an imminent or actual dust-on-snow deposition event in progress. Several other key organizations monitoring and forecasting weather, snowpack, and streamflows on your behalf will also receive these products, as a courtesy. As you may know, some Colorado ranges already have a significant dust layer within the snowpack. The photo below taken at our Swamp Angel Study Plot near Red Mountain Pass on January 1 shows, very distinctly, a significant dust layer deposited on December 13, 2008, now deeply buried under 1 meter of snow.
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