At the State of the Yampa Address put on by the Colorado River District at the end of March, longtime rancher Doug Monger asked those gathered for the event to pray for some rain.
At that time, Monger said finding mud puddles on his ranch near Hayden was nearly impossible, as any moisture was quickly soaked up by the water-starved soil. A lack of a specific illness among his calves was another indicator of just how dry things were.
“After these rainstorms, finally we got some mud holes, and I had a few sick calves,” Monger said. “It was absolutely awesome.”
The basin is currently sitting at 98% of average for snow-water equivalent left at this point in the year, with about 3.3 inches of water still left to melt. That is the second most of the seven basins in Colorado.
“We should all be grateful that we have the streamflows that we have and just hope they stay long enough to get through the entire irrigation season,” Light said. “But I do think that what we have gotten so far — both snow and springtime precipitation — is not enough.”
The third source of water is monsoonal rain, which typically comes later in the summer. Last year, there was a strong monsoonal push from the southwest, something Light said people should hope for this year as well.
In the short-term, a solid monsoon combined with the water already in the valley could be enough to avoid a larger call on the Yampa River, Light said. The main stem has only been put on a call three times — each in the last four years
forcing many local ranchers to sell off their cattle early because they had nothing left to feed them. Todd Hagenbuch, director and agricultural agent for the Routt County Colorado State University Extension office, said he expected this year would be much better, not only for lower lying irrigated meadows, but higher, dry pastures as well.
“It stayed cool long enough to hold the snow a little bit longer, and now we’re able to use some of that irrigation water to our benefit, where we couldn’t have used it if it melted and left the system,” Hagenbuch said. “Those areas you can’t irrigate, you’ll have to rely on Mother Nature to do that and those pastures are in really good shape compared to the last two years.”
Despite the rain, the June drought outlook from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center still predicts that drought will persist in Northwest Colorado and across a majority of the West. Both the one and three month outlooks for precipitation forecast below average rainfall for the Yampa Valley.
Still, Monger is optimistic: “We’re still maybe having some more miracle May so I hate to say it’s done with.”