Water engineer Bob Hurford has a chart he often shares with communities in the Gunnison River Basin to drive home the seriousness of the region’s water conditions. It shows that the basin’s runoff in the 2020s, so far, is worse than the Dust Bowl era of the ’30s. … The western Colorado river basin spans mountainous, agricultural regions and communities like Crested Butte, Gunnison, Paonia, Montrose, Olathe and Delta. Snowpack in the basin this year was near normal — when based on 30 years of data. The 100-year look was much more bleak, Hurford found. … Mountain snowpack in the Gunnison River Basin — one of several major river basins in Colorado — peaked at 93% in late March, melted a bit, then rose again to 84% of the median, based on federal data from 1991 to 2020. The basin is broken into smaller watersheds, including the Upper Gunnison, Uncompahgre and North Fork basins. In the Uncompahgre Valley, where Harold farms, the snowpack also peaked at slightly less than normal. Spring runoff projections for the valley were about 70% of the norm, Hurford said.

Other water supply and drought news around the West:

• Audubon: Blog: Arizona surveys find a record-low number of elegant trogons, raising concerns about drought impacts
• Rio Rancho Observer (New Mexico): Opinion: We don’t need retreat plans. We need to stand our ground