Evening Lizards!

I went skiing today (I know, big shock) and I am still kind of shocked how much snow is on the ground in the alpine zones of the mountains here.

The big snow melt, though, is definitely underway. It was upper 50s to low 60s up in the alpine zone (9,000 ft. to above treeline) and past the 70s today in the lower reaches of the Yampa, Colorado and Gunnison rivers. This is problematic. The whole of the Front Range and Continental Divide got hammered with moisture this week, and flooding is occurring on all the streams west of the Front Range urban corridor. A young man drowned today while fishing on the Cache la Poudre river. :( And now the temps are going to soar later this week.

We’re already seeing significant geological events with this spring runoff. A 2-mile wide 4-mile long 250 feet deep mudslide occurred sometime last night on the northwest flank of Grand Mesa. 3 local long-time ranchers (who are related to one another) are missing tonight.

photo: #MCmudslide aerial view. wow. pilot says he’s never seen anything like this. pic.twitter.com/VNZzup5nlX

— AAron Ontiveroz (@aaronontiveroz) May 26, 2014

And the spring snow melt has really only just begun. If it gets really hot later this week, there will be some significant flood events.