DoomsdaysCW#Colorado residents face earliest #WaterRestrictions ever — a harbinger of worse to come
Nearly every snow basin in the Mountain West had one of its warmest winters on record and is well behind normal for water supplies.
March 27, 2026, 9:11 AM EDT
By Evan Bush
"As a result of a #SnowDrought and a #HeatWave that have both set records, some Colorado residents face the earliest restrictions on their water use ever imposed.
"#DenverWater announced Wednesday that it is seeking a 20% cut in water use, asking people to turn off automatic watering systems until mid-May and restricting the watering of trees and shrubs to twice a week.
" 'The situation is quite serious,' said Todd Hartman, a spokesperson for the utility. 'We’re in such a dire situation that we could be coming back to the public in two or three months and saying you’re limited to one day a week.'
"It is the earliest in the year that Denver Water has ever issued a restriction, Hartman said.
"Colorado’s #snowpack peaked at extremely low levels on March 12 — nearly a month earlier than usual — then cratered during the recent heat wave that cooked nearly every state in the West.
" 'We already had the lowest snowpack we’ve seen since at least 1981, and now, with the heat wave conditions, we’ve already lost about 40% of the statewide snowpack' since the March 12 peak, said Peter Goble, Colorado’s assistant state climatologist. 'Conditions are looking more like late April or early May.' "
#USWx #WesternUS #Drought #ClimateCrisis #WaterIsLife #ClimateChange
