{"id":97664,"date":"2018-10-03T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T21:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/animas-river-appears-to-have-hit-all-time-low\/"},"modified":"2018-10-03T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T21:41:00","slug":"animas-river-appears-to-have-hit-all-time-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/animas-river-appears-to-have-hit-all-time-low\/","title":{"rendered":"Animas River appears to have hit all-time low"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Animas River appears to have hit a record low, registering the lowest flow at a Durango water-level station with more than 100 years of data.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Animas River appears to have hit an all-time low.<\/p>\n

During the last week or so, the river in Durango has registered the lowest flows ever recorded at a water-level gauge, which has been in operation for 107 years, located behind the Powerhouse Science Center, according to data maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey.<\/p>\n

Around Sept. 26, the Animas River dipped below 100 cubic feet per second \u2013 the measurement used for waterways.<\/p>\n

According to a review of the water-level gauge\u2019s data<\/a>, the Animas River has never dropped below 100 cfs.<\/p>\n

Robert Kimbrough with the USGS in Denver said although the gauge shows the Animas below 100 cfs, the information needs to be confirmed before it can be considered an official record. He did not have a timeline for when that would be finished.<\/p>\n

The USGS<\/a> offices in Durango did not return phone calls Monday seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Greg Smith, a senior hydrologist for the Colorado River Basin Forecast Center<\/a>, confirmed the Animas appears to have recorded its lowest flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see where it\u2019s been this low, either,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAccording to the records I have, that\u2019s been the lowest.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Dolores River was running at just over 10 cfs. By Wednesday, after a couple of days of rain, the river was at about 65 cfs. A slight chance of rain in Montezuma County will persist through Saturday, Jim Andrus, a Cortez weather watcher for the National Weather Service, said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

As another stark reminder of the prolonged drought in the area, this year is on track to be Southwest Colorado\u2019s second driest water year on record.<\/p>\n

Kimbrough said the 2018 water year data has not been finalized, but provisional data indicates this year will be the second lowest on record.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, a water year runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

Kimbrough said 2002 is on record as the lowest water year, and 1977 is the third lowest.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthwest Colorado has had a rough year,\u201d said Taryn Finnessey, a senior climate change specialist with the Colorado Water Conservation Board<\/a>. \u201cDefinitely broken a lot of records, not in the positive manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Playing
Playing in the record-low Animas River are from left, Jimmy Forquer, 12, Jourden Chambers, 10, Angel Chambers, 11, and Jayden Forquer, 13, at the 32nd Street put-in on Sunday. The drought year has caused some of the lowest flows in the recorded history of the Animas River, dating back 107 years.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Drought conditions started last fall. Between October and December, a weather station at Durango-La Plata County Airport recorded 0.32 inches of precipitation, nearly 4 inches below those months\u2019 historic averages.<\/p>\n

Then, winter failed to show up, with the San Juan Mountains recording just half of the snowpack it receives in a normal year. On Molas Pass, there were only 11 inches of snow water equivalent, compared with the average of nearly 20 inches.<\/p>\n

This spring, the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a> listed Southwest Colorado in an \u201cexceptional drought\u201d \u2013 the highest and most intense category the center has for drought listings.<\/p>\n

Lack of rain in spring and summer has kept Southwest Colorado in this category. The same weather station at the airport has recorded about 4 inches of rain since Jan. 1 \u2013 nearly 8 inches below normal.<\/p>\n

Smith said the low flow on the Animas River can be attributed to a lack of monsoons during July, August and September in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monsoons are important to keep the flow up in the late part of summer,\u201d Smith said. \u201cAnd it just did not materialize this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

For months, forecasters held out hope the monsoon would arrive, but a high-pressure system sitting farther west than usual blocked moisture from making it to the parched landscape of Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a few good days,\u201d said Megan Stackhouse, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction<\/a>, in a previous interview. \u201cBut that high just blocked everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ever since 2000, weather experts have noticed an alarming trend: less monsoon activity and decreasing precipitation over the San Juan Mountains, Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a trend you hope is not going to continue indefinitely into the future,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what that means for the long haul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Goble, a climatologist with Colorado State University\u2019s Colorado Climate Center<\/a>, said the cause behind decreasing monsoon activity remains unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the grand scheme of things, it still hasn\u2019t been even 20 years,\u201d Goble said. \u201cAnd the monsoon is a bit of a funky pattern. It\u2019s quite transient and highly variable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lack of snowpack in the winter and precipitation in the summer, combined with above-average temperatures, has wreaked havoc on watersheds throughout the Four Corners, Goble said.<\/p>\n

A water-level gauge on the San Juan River near Bluff, New Mexico, for instance, recorded its lowest flow in 92 years of data. And a weather station at Mesa Verde, too, recorded its lowest precipitation total in 120 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen some disconcerting records,\u201d Goble said. \u201cIt\u2019s a serious situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seriousness of the situation can be illustrated in the region\u2019s reservoirs: Both Lemon and Vallecito reservoirs are nearing 10 percent capacity. Calls to the city of Durango to check on the city\u2019s reservoir were not returned late Monday.<\/p>\n

Despite the Animas River\u2019s chronically low flows this year, Rob Genualdi, division engineer for the Colorado Division of Water Resource Division 7<\/a>, said there have been no water calls on the main stem of the Animas River.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, there is a priority system with water rights. Those with older water rights have the authority to cut off people with newer water rights to satisfy their needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has said they want junior water rights turned off to satisfy theirs,\u201d Genualdi said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a different story on the Animas River\u2019s heavily used tributaries \u2013 like Falls, Junction and Lightner creeks. Water rights were called on those streams, and in some cases, the creeks dried up.<\/p>\n

Smith said the Four Corners is no stranger to prolonged drought. In the 1930s and 1940s, there were some bad snowpack years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a semi-arid region,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you look at the long-term history, we just have periods where we get real dry. It happens. We\u2019ll probably get wet periods again, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivers might get much needed relief this winter. Cortez weather watcher Andrus told The Journal that there was a good chance that an El Ni\u00f1o pattern of wet weather would reach the Four Corners area in November.<\/p>\n

And forecasters also say the area\u2019s first snowstorm of the season may hit this weekend.<\/p>\n

The Cortez Journal contributed to this article.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southwest Colorado headed for second lowest water year in history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[4158,304,402,13,295],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-animas-city","tag-animas-river","tag-drought","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-water"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97664"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}