The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
May be short-lived with a dry fall
By Katherine Nettles
The 2024 water year ended on a high note in late September, as a particularly wet August helped stave off drought conditions throughout the entire Gunnison River Basin, according to experts at the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District (UGRWCD). However, almost two months of relatively dry weather since the August rains have started to make an impact.
UGRWCD water specialist Beverly Richards gave a recent update to Gunnison County commissioners and showed that at that time, Gunnison County and surrounding areas were registering on the state’s drought monitor as not experiencing any drought conditions. That remains current and has been the case since August 27.
The drought monitor uses precipitation, temperature and soil moisture to determine conditions and can be found at drought.gov.
Richards said 48% of the state of Colorado was drought-free as well, with monitors in early October showing only a range of abnormally dry conditions to moderate drought in areas to the east of the state. Water year 2024 ended on September 30 with the basin at 119% of average.
“Coming into the new water year, we’re still in pretty good shape,” said Richards, although forecasts look to remain mostly dry for the next couple months and some portions of the county and the state are showing signs of the impact.
“The eastern plains are really drying out,” said Richards, which she said is a concern for the whole water ecosystem. As of October 22, areas around Denver have increased drought alerts abnormally dry to severe and in some cases extreme.
Precipitation over the prior 30 days had for the most time hovered around 25% of normal with a few wetter exceptions to the south of Saguache County. “Hopefully it will hold on for a few more months, but they are forecasting that we may be returning to somedrought conditions,” she said.
In October of 2023 62% of Gunnison County was experiencing moderate drought conditions, “So we’re in much better shape than last year,” she noted.
As for stream flows for the Gunnison Basin, many at the north end of the valley are below historic averages. The Gunnison River and Tomichi Creek are both slightly above historic averages.
The Bureau of Reclamation began scheduled releases on the Taylor Reservoir, which flows through the Taylor River, on September 26. “They are supposed to be stepping down 25 cfs per day until the reach the winter rate of 85 cfs,” said Richards. The slower rate of flow reduction helps protect the fishery there.
There was a call placed on the Slate River on September 18 when flows fell below 23 cfs, the river’s summer rate through the end of November. “We did have to make releases out of Meridian Reservoir as part of our augmentation plan to bring flows in that area up,” said Richards. A rain event on September 22 caused a spike in flows, pausing the releases for several days, but they have since continued and are expected to do so until the end of November.
The Upper Gunnison Basin storage is holding at around 67% of average and that is expected to hold for the winter.
The Upper Colorado River basin storage is at about 70% of average, with the outlier being Lake Powell. Powell storage got up to about 42% full this summer before starting to drop again. “That’s a concern, of course,” commented Richards. As of mid-October, Powell was at 39% of average.
