Just had a dandy hailstorm. The ground is white. The prairie dogs are nowhere to be seen. Vail Ski Resort, now closed, has had something like 500 inches of snow this season. It is presently snowing from below timberline on up. Down here at 5000 ft we’re getting liquid phase water, except for the hail. Up in the mountains the watersheds are well above average in snowpack.
The snowy season in Colorado has been characterized by westerly flows of moisture that have deposited considerable snow in the mountains, but left us along the Front Range in a moisture shadow. It has been a dry winter here where the Great Plains end and the North American cordillera begins.
Thursday, April 28. The morning sky is severe clear. Pikes Peak 90 miles to the south sits on the horizon like a jagged dogs molar. Hot air balloons hang silently over the early morning landscape with their rip-stop fabric draped over a bubble of warm air. The mountains gleem white under a fresh coat of snow above timberline. It is a lovely day.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
The snowpack is currently 149% of the 100 year average. The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District fully expects to “spill” Granby this runoff season. Basically a controlled flood. Down here on the plains, at least Fossil Creek Reservoir and others will “spill.” Even so, as dry as it has been we’ll be able to use most everythign we get. And if, as sometimes happens, the mountains get too warm and windy too fast, all that snow will sublime instead of melt and we’ll get very little. NCWCD, of course, takes this opportunity to argue for additional storage.