Colorado Drought: Momentous Mountain Snow Finally Brings Improvement, Front Range Situation Still Grim

DENVER (CBS4) - Multiple winter storms in the high country have finally wiped out drought in some areas. Meanwhile the recent snow in the metro area has not yet even dented the drought at lower elevations.

It should be noted drought often takes months to develop and can just take just as long to improve so quick changes to drought status is not common.

Still, two weeks ago most mountain areas in Colorado still had at least severe drought. And now there is nothing worse than moderate drought along the I-70 mountain corridor and drought has completely disappeared from the Glenwood Springs, Aspen, and Crested Butte areas.

Meanwhile, the entire Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins area remains under extreme drought which is the second from worst drought category (only exceptional drought is worse which fortunately includes no part of Colorado at this time).

Of source there has been recent snow in Denver, but it hasn't been enough to have an influence on the drought yet. For the season, Denver has only had 10.1 inches of snow since the record latest first snow finally arrived on December 10th.

Regardless of Front Range moisture, what matters most in Colorado is high country moisture since that is where the water supply for most Front Range communities originates.

Looking forward into the weekend, there is one more storm that will move across Colorado Friday night into Saturday. Snow will return to the mountains and there is a chance Denver and the Front Range could briefly see snow late Saturday. No accumulation is expected in the metro area at this time and most mountain areas will only get 2-6 inches - much less than recent storms.