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State climatologist warns Colorado is warmer, runoff shifting earlier and summer water stress may increase
Summary
Colorado State Climatologist Russ Schumacher told the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee that the state has experienced notable warming, leading to earlier snowmelt and increased evaporative demand; he said La Niña and natural variability complicate precipitation forecasts but add drought risk for parts of the state.
Dr. Russ Schumacher, state climatologist and director of the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University, told the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee that Colorado is experiencing a clear warming trend and that the consequences for water supply are already apparent.
"We've seen more warming that's happened. It's been observed," Schumacher said, summarizing decades of state temperature records and model projections. He said the Oct–July period this water year ranked among the state's warmest on record and that much of Colorado fell into the top‑10 warmest category for that period.
Schumacher reviewed regional contrasts: high‑mountain basins can still show above‑average snowpack while southern basins…
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