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Colorado Turning Away From Dry Conditions

US Drought Monitor

Colorado has been abnormally dry in recent months.

But, as KUSA Denver reports,that could be changing. Becky Bolinger, a climatologist with the Colorado Climate Center in Fort Collins, says Colorado’s “going through a bit of a shift right now.”

Over the past couple of weeks, Colorado’s high country has started accumulate more snowpack. And that’s good news for eastern Colorado agriculture, which often relies on runoff from the Rockies. Two weeks ago, the state’s snowpack levels were only running at about 25 percent their normal levels. Now that level has risen to between 40 and 60 percent.

The bad news? Most of the moisture is falling west of the Continental Divide. That means eastern Colorado has yet to see many benefits from the rise in precipitation.

Even so, climatologists are expressing a cautious optimism that the state is turning away from drought conditions.