Snowpack now above average

The April snows just kept coming, providing a great boost to the mountain snowpack in northern Colorado.

As of April 27, the South Platte Basin, which includes the Cache la Poudre and Big Thompson rivers, was at 108 percent of average, up from 90 percent at the end of March.

"April's really been fantastic for the South Platte Basin," said Mike Gillespie, snow survey supervisor for Colorado.

In the big storm April 17 through 19, northern Colorado picked up about 3 inches of snow-water equivalent.

Statewide on April 27, the snowpack stood at 98 percent of average. The driest part of the state was the southwest corner, where the Animas, Delores, San Juan and San Miguel basins had just 76 percent of average snowpack.

The official spring runoff forecast will be updated in early May, Gillespie said, but he thinks northern Colorado could be looking at an average runoff because of the April storms. "We had a pretty significant turnaround in the South Platte," he noted.

At the end of March, the South Platte was tied for the lowest snowpack in the state, and Gillespie's office was predicting runoff to be just 80 to 85 percent of average.