WEEK OF NOVEMBER 24, 2022
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Early-season snow off to good start in high country
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Fort Lupton retirement contributions to increase BY STEVE SMITH SSMITH@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A fox ventures through the snow on Conifer’s Shadow Mountain.
Too soon to get excited, but snowpack is 140% of average BY CHRIS OUTCALT THE COLORADO SUN
Snowpack on the Western Slope is off to a good start, but experts caution it’s difficult to draw many meaningful conclusions from snowcovered, high-country peaks this early in the season. “It’s kind of like leading a football game by a field goal halfway through the first quarter,” Jeff Lukas, an independent climate researcher, wrote in an email. As of early November, the statewide snowpack was 140% of the median from 1991 to 2020, and 142% in the Colorado River headwaters area specifically, according to SNO-
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TEL data compiled by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The averages were slightly higher elsewhere on the Western Slope. Still, there’s a long way to go. Typically, on Nov. 9, Colorado is about 8% of the way to achieving statewide median snowpack, Lukas said. Right now, the state is about 12% of the way there, he said. But, Lukas cautioned that there’s very little correlation between mountain precipitation in October and early November and the final totals across an entire snow season. In about a third of the past 35 years, early-season snow totals looked something like they do so far this year, Lukas said. The seasonending snowpack across those 12 years, however, runs the gamut, from a handful of average years to a very good 1995 and a dismal 2012. Nevertheless, it’s better to have snow on the ground than not, he said.
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“Every little bit helps. Just like a field goal early in the first quarter,” he wrote. “But it needs to be followed up with a lot more scoring.” Given the challenges facing the Colorado River, water managers across the region will be watching the snowpack especially closely this year. More than 40 million people rely on the snow that accumulates high up in the mountains in the Colorado River Basin and then flows into the river and its tributaries. The water is also used to irrigate millions of acres of farmland. However, a series of subpar snow years and dry soil conditions paired with sustained water use has drained the country’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — and strained the entire Colorado River system. So far this year, the biggest in-state beneficiary of the early-season snow
Fort Lupton City Council approved an increase in contributions to the city’s 401a money purchase retirement plan during a Nov. 15 regular meeting. Councilors voted 5-1 to increase employer and employee contributions to 4.5 percent in 2023. Council already approved an increase to 10.2 percent for employees and employers on the sworn police officer retirement savings plan. Councilwoman Valerie Blackston cast the lone “no” vote Nov. 15. She preferred an increase in money from the city but not the workers. In a Nov. 8 town hall meeting, she cited the new employee contribution and the potential impact of a pending cost-of-living adjustment for city workers. The cost to the city is almost $38,000 next year. Staff notes said the actual figure depends on headcounts and payroll. “The employees will pay an SEE INCREASE, P12
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