Award-winning coverage of the 2012 drought
An emergency water year, even for a desert — 6/14/2012
You know it when you see it, but when it comes to pinning down the specifics of what constitutes a drought, location is key. Many parts of the world can define drought as a certain number of days or weeks without significant rainfall. That definition may hold up somewhat for the eastern U.S., but…
A hot spell for the books is back —6/14/2012
Ten years ago last weekend, after flying over several wildfires burning across Colorado, then-Gov. Bill Owens made an observation that still resonates. “It looks as if all of Colorado is burning today,” Owens told reporters then. While the number and size of fires torching the …
Low river flows hampering fish — 6/15/2012
Low streamflows are forcing dam operators to choose between irrigation and fish—and at some sites are taking the decision out of their hands. Endangered and other native fish may pay a price this summer, but wildlife officials are hopeful that as long as the drought does not last …
Effects of wilfire on landscape, wildlife go beyond the flames — 6/21/2012
The potential impacts of the fires currently sweeping through parts of the state — and forecast throughout this hot, dry summer — will not end when the flames go out. And, ironically, the water on which humans and wildlife depend may be one of the key resources at risk…
Spring driest, 3rd warmest on record — 6/21/2012
Grand Junction on Wednesday leaped from the frying pan into the fire, bidding farewell to a spring that was unprecedented in its lack of moisture and saying hello to a summer showing few indications that a break from the hot, dry spell is anything more than a mirage in this desert…
Drought drains Blue Mesa — 6/25/2012
Even an average snow year will leave Blue Mesa Reservoir well short of its water-holding capacity next year, and it could take years for levels to recover. As is the case with many other measurements, the amount of water stored in Blue Mesa is tracking almost eerily with that of 2002…
Water usage leaps, despite pleas — 6/27/2012
As Mesa County residents open their water bills from the first month of summer, they may be in for an unpleasant — but completely avoidable — surprise. Despite recent calls for residents to voluntarily reduce their water usage during this year’s extreme drought…
Leading horses to water — 7/02/2012
Even wild horses will require extraordinary measures to make it through this year’s drought, it appears. The Bureau of Land Management is taking the exceptional step of trucking tanks of water to a herd of wild horses, an effort the agency says is necessitated by the area’s springs …
Drought prompts Western Slope fire departments to boost equipment, training — 7/15/2012
Fire was clearly in the forecast months ago as a dry winter left thousands of acres of pinyon-juniper forest in western Colorado as susceptible to ignition as an open gasoline can. “We’re dreading it, believe me,” said James Wood, deputy chief of Lands End Fire Protection…
In drought, some insects flourishing; some not — 7/16/2012
The drought conditions that have swept through Colorado and the wider region are affecting the animal kingdom in various ways. For longer-lived large animals the exact extent of those effects might not be clear, but for many insects the impacts have been obvious and immediate…
