The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Drought conditions worsening quickly
By Katherine Nettles
Gunnison County is showing the cumulative effects of a hot, dry summer, as is most of Colorado’s Western Slope and the majority of the western United States this year. The county will be moving to Stage 2 fire restrictions on Friday, joining several other surrounding areas and public lands jurisdictions.
Following a weekly fire council meeting, Gunnison County emergency management director Lisa Bickford announced that the decision had been made for entering Stage 2 fire restrictions for all of unincorporated Gunnison County starting August 15. “The Gunnison National Forest and BLM Gunnison Field Office will be entering Stage 2 restrictions at the same time,” noted Bickford. “As a reminder, the Upper Crystal River Valley area of Gunnison County and the White River National Forest are already in Stage 2 restrictions.”
Stage 2 restrictions mean all campfires and fireworks are prohibited, in addition to other restrictions for off road vehicles, smoking and use of combustion engines, explosives, welding, torches or chainsaws.
Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District (UGRWCD) representatives updated county officials of worsening drought conditions earlier this week, reporting that as of August 5, 50% of Gunnison County was experiencing extreme drought conditions. That is a stark change from just one month ago when only 5% of the county was in extreme drought.
UGRWCD senior program manager Beverly Richards described the situation in a work session with Gunnison County commissioners on Tuesday. “Things have gotten worse quickly,” she said of the past month. “We’ve moved from class 1 to class 4 degradation.”
Richards shared information from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), which shows precipitation across the county ranging from 0% to 100% over the past 30 days as of August 8. The areas with higher precipitation were “very small” and to the east as Richards described. “For the most part, it’s been around 25-50% of normal precipitation for this time of year,” she said.
“The county and much of the Western Slope saw little to no precipitation the first seven days of August,” she added.
“We’re at 8% of the median for the Upper Gunnison Basin precipitation.”
Meanwhile, temperatures in the county during those first seven days ranged from 60 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
With no meaningful precipitation in the immediate forecast for the next week—aside from Hinsdale County which is predicted to get up to three-quarters-of-an-inch of precipitation, Richards said conditions were likely to continue deteriorating.
The UGRWCD compiled precipitation accumulation across the Upper Gunnison Basin for the year to date, using data across eight snow telemetry sites. That data shows the basin is at 84% of the median, with about 20 inches of precipitation for the year to date. “We are tracking similarly to 2020,” said Richards.
Stream flows are are well below historical averages for August 11. The only two exceptions are those associated with releases out of the Taylor Reservoir. Those will remain at 300 cubic feet per second through Labor Day weekend, pending input from the US Bureau of Reclamation. “That is meant to help out commercial outfitters and others who rely on those releases,” said Richards.
There was a water call on the Slate River above Baxter Gulch, so the UGRWCD is releasing water out of Meridian Lake Reservoir. Richards reported that the Lake Fork below Lake San Cristobal is below the summer instream flow agreement for that stretch of river, so the district is also awaiting instructions to address that shortfall. “We would release water out of Lake San Cristobal,” she said of the potential next step.
Currently, 20% of the state (almost entirely within the Western Slope) is in extreme drought conditions. “So, the whole Western Slope is in the same boat as Gunnison County,” summarized Richards. “That is being seen in all the wildfires.”
There are at least five fires actively burning in Colorado: the Lee, Elk, Oak, Stoner Mesa, and Crosho fires. The Lee fire, located near Meeker, has grown to over 120,000 acres with 7% containment as of Wednesday, August 13. It is the fifth largest in Colorado’s known history.
