Back-to-back blizzards bury budgets

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

While road crews worked around the clock, shoppers jammed grocery stores looking for eggs and milk, kids dug snow caves in mountains of white stuff, and hardware stores ran out of shovels.

It was indeed a white Christmas--and New Year's--but after back-to-back snow storms, city and county road budgets are about as red as Santa's suit.

Fort Collins now anticipates its snow removal budget going more than $1 million in the hole for the calendar year.

Holli Keyser, administrative support supervisor for the Streets Department, said the department will likely end up spending twice its annual snow removal budget of $1.06 million because of the two big storms. The city is looking at options for dealing with the shortfall, she said, including the possibility of applying for disaster relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The pre-Christmas blizzard alone likely cost the city more than $400,000, according to streets superintendent Larry Schneider.

Larimer County Road and Bridge Department Director Dale Miller said he "just barely" had time for Christmas in the midst of clearing rural roads after the first storm.

His department efforts got high marks from Marty Perry of the Stove Prairie area, however. Perry spent late December plowing out many of his neighbors' driveways, and he said the county "does a great job up here" on the main roads.

The Dec. 20 blizzard cost Larimer County about $142,000, Miller said, or close to 20 percent of the average spent on snow removal per year for the past three years. The total cost for snow removal in 2006 will be considerably above average, Miller said.

City and county costs from the second storm had not been tallied at press time.

Healthy snowpack

The storms were good news for farmers, skiers and others who pay attention to moisture brought by winter snows. According to Nolan Doesken, assistant state climatologist, the first blizzard brought between 16 and 24 inches of the white stuff to the Fort Collins area, followed by another 6 to 11 inches Dec. 28 and 29. As of Dec. 30, the Colorado State University campus had received 40.1 inches of snow this season, compared to an average of 21 inches.

The blizzards brought the South Platte Basin, which includes both Poudre and Big Thompson drainages, up to 133 percent of average in terms of water content. Statewide, total moisture stood at 99 percent of average after the storm.

The late December storms created a very different scenario from that of a year ago, when most early snows hit the high country but not the plains. Last year the plains stayed dry all winter, prolonging drought conditions for farmers and ranchers. This year, the upslope storms were "really beneficial" to the dry soils of plains and foothills, but the higher mountains didn't benefit as much, according to state snow survey supervisor Mike Gillespie.

Joe Wright Reservoir, located close to Cameron Pass, logged the most snowfall in the state from the first blizzard, picking up a whopping 38.4 inches of snow. After the second storm, the snow depth at Joe Wright was 54 inches. Water content was 11.4 inches, or 121 percent of average.

Snow depths from other automated Snowtel sites in the Poudre and Big Thompson drainages were as follows on Dec. 30.

• Deadman Hill west of Red Feather Lakes: 43.6 inches of snow; 8.8 inches of water content or 119 percent of average.
• Bear Lake: 51.4 inches of snow; 11.2 inches of water content or 181 percent of average.
• Copeland Lake on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park: 28.2 inches of snow; 3.9 inches of water content or 217 percent of average.