By Shelley Widhalm
The Surveyor

The town of Berthoud and Berthoud Pass are above average for snowpack as of April 1, which is good news for agriculture producers and town residents.

“What I’m seeing right now from initial indications is that runoff projections are looking pretty close to normal provided we see normal precipitation through the rest of the year,” said Brian Domonkos, Colorado Snow Survey supervisor for the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service.

The Snow Survey and water supply forecasting program uses SNOTEL (snow telemetry) stations in the state’s mountains to measure the snow water equivalent. The data is collected manually with measuring tubes and at automated sites taking hourly measurements of water content, snow depth, air temperature and all forms of precipitation.

Berthoud Summit SNOTEL/Berthoud Pass showed 119% of the median snowpack as of April 1, when data is collated to forecast runoff for the spring and summer months. The actual snow depth was 73 inches on that date.

The data is entered into a volumetric stream flow forecast to determine a range of outcomes for the amount of water in corresponding streams and rivers.
“Farmers and agricultural producers get an idea of … what to plant, where to put their cattle and how to run their operations,” Domonkos said.

Comparatively, the Clear Creek Watershed is at 111% of normal, the Boulder Watershed is at 114% and St. Vrain is at 129%. Last year, Berthoud Pass was at 102%.
“March was a bit of a snowier month across Colorado, which is fortunate because we needed moisture. It provided a boost to the snowpack this year,” Domonkos said.

“Last year, it wasn’t as beneficial a March as I recall. This year, it’s more snowy, and it seemed to make that little bit of improvement.”

Snowfall during the 2023-24 winter season was relatively light, bolstered by two large snowstorms in mid-January and mid-March, Domonkos said. Two to three weeks of typical winter remain, but it can go on longer than that, he said.

“The larger storms provide more snow than other times of year,” Domonkos said. “A bigger storm, a foot to three feet of snow depth, gives you a nicer boost. … You get a lot of little accumulations over the year. It’s more the norm.”

Northern Colorado Water, a water utility in Berthoud, evaluates precipitation for its service area which includes eight counties covering Fort Collins down to Boulder and parts of eastern Colorado. The Berthoud station measures precipitation for the town and for November to March measured it at 6.15 inches, or 196% of average. It has stations throughout the region to determine the water supply.

“For the whole area in general, we are about where we were last year, a little bit above average for the municipalities but … for the mountains not as much but still good,” said Emily Carbone, water resource specialist for Northern Water. “The difference is that this year started out a lot slower—November to January were pretty slow—and the last couple of months had above-average precipitation.”