Sent weekly with a letter from the newsroom.
Laurine Lassalle is Aspen Journalism’s data desk editor, where she works to catalogue and analyze local public data. She also heads our our “Tracking the Curve” project, documenting COVID-19 in Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties. She has a master’s degree in data and investigative journalism from UC Berkeley with an emphasis on environmental reporting.
• Lake Powell’s elevation was down to 3,525.2 feet on March 13 — getting close to the 3,525 threshold.
• Snowpack at Schofield Pass holds about 36.7 inches of water. That’s 115.2% of average.
• Lake Powell’s elevation down to 3,526 ft on March 6 — or one foot away from target elevation.
• Snowpack at Schofield Pass has gained 3 inches of SWE since last week.
Beginning in the last two years, the expectation that transit will absorb growth has been put to the test. Although car counts at the entrance were relatively low last year, other factors help explain why 2021 saw perhaps the highest level of community angst about traffic in a generation.
• Maximum air temperature dropped to 20°F on Feb. 24.
• Snowpack at McClure Pass increased from 9.41 inches last week to 11.69 inches on Feb. 27.
• Lake Powell is only 3.5 feet away from critical water level.
• Paid occupancy in Aspen reached 70.4% last January, up from 38.1% last year and down from 75.1% in 2020.
• Lake Powell’s water elevation reached 3,529.4 ft on Feb. 13.
• Snowpack at Indy Pass was at 84.7% of average on Feb. 13, down from last week but up from last year’s 80.5% of average.
• Snowpack at Schofield, Ivanhoe still above average.
• Lake Powell is 25.76% full, its lowest level since filling.
• Lake Powell’s surface elevation is less than 7ft above target elevation.
• RFSD’s school enrollment is down 6% from 2019.
• Lake Powell’s storage hits new record low on Jan. 23, when the reservoir was 26.45% of full.
• Snowpack around the Roaring Fork basin well ahead of last season’s pace.
• Paid occupancy for Aspen reaches 64.1% in December, up from 61.8% in 2019.
• Snowpack at Schofield Pass has gained more than 15 in of SWE since Dec. 23.
