An interest in the snowpack
This week in the Roundup, we continue our tracking of critical local and regional data points. If you’re like me, you are watching the snowpack’s size relative to historical averages like a hawk, with the assistance of our Data Dashboard. While we got a big boost from the week-long late December storm cycle, the lack of significant accumulation since has brought the Independence Pass snowpack east of Aspen just barely back below the 30-year average. Here’s hoping for a weather pattern shift that will bring more than a dusting of snow with each passing cold front.
This interest in snowpack goes beyond my own selfish desire to ski bumps smaller than golf carts. As you can also see on the dashboard, the surface of Lake Powell — that critical indicator of the sustainability of the water system in the Colorado River basin — is at its lowest level ever, just 8 feet above a target elevation below which the ability to generate hydropower is threatened. That water system will see challenges like never before later this year without a healthy runoff reaching that desert reservoir this spring. The good news is that snowpack levels here in the Roaring Fork region are 40% to 60% above where they were at this time last year.
Tracking the Curve, our COVID-19 data project, also continues to be a critical public resource. As the omicron wave subsides in Colorado, you can go deep into the numbers. Besides daily case counts and incidence rates for the three counties making up the Roaring Fork Valley, you can see data on deaths and hospitalizations — which like the case counts are on the decline.
Thank you for reading and supporting Aspen Journalism.
–Curtis Wackerle, editor and executive director
Data dashboard: Lake Powell approaches critical water level
Snowpack at Indy and McClure Passes still close to historic averages
By Laurine Lassalle | January 25, 2022
• 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.
Tracking the Curve
Documenting COVID-19 in Pitkin, Eagle and Garfield counties
By Laurine Lassalle | January 25, 2022
Garfield County reported 227 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend, Eagle County added 186 cases, while Pitkin County recorded 48 new cases. Pitkin County’s incidence rate reached 1,411 per 100,000 on Monday, down from over 3,000 two weeks ago.
City of Aspen’s child care priorities advance from crawling to walking stage
“Reveal told council that there is a severe shortage of spaces for infants, which is a big reason many families move … . ‘I am asking you as the City Council to keep your eye on the ball, and the ball is that 32 infant spaces is not enough, and all the small tweaking at the Yellow Brick will not get us significantly improved numbers.’”
Source: aspentimes.com | Read more
Aspen Skiing Co. gets creative to make dent in worker shortage
“Roshane Thompson faced a tough decision when his seasonal employment at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs ended Dec. 31. He could return to see his wife and daughter in Jamaica until the Broadmoor needed him again in April or he could extend his H-2B visa and go to work as a cook for Aspen Skiing Co.”
Source: aspentimes.com | Read more
Unaweep Canyon is central to Xcel Energy’s big plans for renewable energy production in Colorado
“Scientists for decades have studied the puzzling canyon, which has creeks draining from both ends. It’s there, atop the easy-to-miss Unaweep Divide, where East Creek starts rolling east toward the Gunnison River and West Creek starts rolling west toward the Dolores River, that Xcel envisions the state’s largest hydropower project.”
Source: coloradosun.com | Read more
A shrinking river inspires growing collaboration
“The total volume of collective actions over the last ten years has propped up the level of (Lake Mead) by about 65 feet, but the last two years were so dry that we could no longer delay the reservoir dropping to a level that triggered a first-ever shortage declaration.”
Source: ppic.org | Read more
Data may be Colorado’s best bet to mitigate increasing wildfire risk on the Front Range
“An analysis of fire weather trends from the region including Denver and Boulder from December through February shows fire weather remains far rarer then than during summer months, but the frequency is increasing at a faster pace — roughly five days per winter now on average, up from an average of about one in the early 1970s.”
Source: coloradosun.com | Read more
Sullivan: If local journalism manages to survive, give Evan Smith some credit for it
“These days, (nonprofit newsrooms like the Texas Tribune) are springing up everywhere; there are now hundreds of them. They are easily the most promising development in the troubled world of local journalism, where newspapers are going out of business or vastly shrinking their staffs as print revenue plummets and ownership increasingly falls to large chains, sometimes owned by hedge funds.”
Source: washingtonpost.com | Read more
Media leaders worry that flight to subscriptions is creating a news access gap between rich and poor
“(It’s a) twisted and unfair message to tell people, ‘Don’t use fake news. Rely on high-quality sources’ when they get shut down the second they try to use them.”
Source: businessinsider.com | Read more
Aspen Journalism is a nonprofit journalism organization based in Aspen, Colorado. Our mission is to produce investigative and in-depth journalism for those with a stake in the Aspen region, by virtue of their living, voting, owning, working, recreating, or visiting here.