The melt-off has begun

Maybe you’ve noticed it’s been a little windy lately. As in for weeks.

All that spring wind has carried a ton of dust from the Great Basin states, and it’s coating our lovely pearly-white mountains an ugly reddish brown.

This dust coats the snow, absorbs heat and speeds the spring melt-off, and it seems to have begun in earnest. The Arkansas River at Parkdale has risen 1.2 feet since April 9, and the slow doubled from 400 to 800 cfs this week.

It’s caused by increased development and agriculture in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, where land disturbance has removed the natural grasses and shrubs that hold down the soil. So we get it, and the melt-off begins earlier, as it did last year as well.

You can also see the impact on the snowpack, which was at 107 percent of average in the Arkansas River Basin three weeks ago, but today is 87 percent. The Upper Colorado River Basin, where most of our drinking water comes from, dropped from 78 to 73 percent of average in the same period.

The good news: Another storm is on the way. The bad news: Like so many in this El Nino season, it’s expected to mainly hammer the San Juans, with up to a foot of snow expected.

For more melting acts, visit The Gazette's Out There blog