BASALT—Most of Colorado is now in a “flash drought.” According to the Colorado Climate Center, high, hot winds coupled with low humidity creates conditions that are worse than a regular drought due to excessive moisture loss from the ground. To make matters worse, river and stream flows in the Roaring Fork Watershed continue to plummet from week to week. On average, flows are running between 32 and 53 percent of normal going into the final weekend of June. The Colorado River at Glenwood Springs is currently 5,660 cubic feet per second below the mean at 4,050. The Roaring Fork River at the confluence is now down to 1,720 cfs, more than 2,100 below normal. The Crystal River at the hatchery should be around 16-hundred cfs but it’s only flowing a little above 500. Officials with the Roaring Fork Conservancy say any precipitation would be welcome at this point but it wouldn’t make much of a dent in local waterways. They say any moisture right now would be sucked up by the parched ground.
