snowpack

The meager snowpack in the Rocky Mountains this winter has again shrunk the amount of runoff, increasing the risks the river’s depleted reservoirs could decline to critically low levels.

However, snowpack melt from higher elevations and elevated river flow rendered the search area too hazardous for rescue staff to conduct thorough searches, according to the release.

Many of California’s reservoirs have filled nearly to capacity this year with runoff from the ample snowpack in the Sierra Nevada.

The snowpack in the upper Colorado River Basin reached 89% of the median level on April 1, but the outlook worsened over the last two months because of persistent dryness, warm temperatures and dry soils in the mountains that have absorbed a portion of the runoff.

“It’s something that, unfortunately, we’re going to see more and more of, where you need well above average snowpack to come somewhere close to average runoff because of the warming temperatures,” Berggren said.