The Aspen Water Treatment Plant recorded 84.70 inches of snowfall for October through December, according to the monthly weather reports. That is 28.45 inches or 51% above the average of 56.25 inches, according to the water department's records.
Each month has been well above average at the plant, which is situated at 8,161 feet, slightly above downtown Aspen's elevation. The cold-weather months started with a bang when 26.70 inches of snow fell in October. The average is 9.20 inches.
November was closer to typical conditions when 23.50 inches fell, the water department reported. The average snowfall for the month is 21.90 inches.
December kept the trend going with 34.50 inches of snowfall, well above the average of 25.15 inches.
None of the months came close to breaking a record for snowfall. The December record, for example, is 72 inches in 1983.
More snowfall than usual at the 8,100-foot level hasn't translated into a significantly higher snowpack than average at higher elevations. The snowpack at the headwaters of the Roaring Fork River east of Aspen is at 107% of median as of Friday, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a federal agency that has automated snow telemetry sites scattered around the Roaring Fork watershed.
The snowpack at the Independence Pass site was at 7.7 inches of snow water equivalent — the amount of water produced when the snow is melted. Last year on the same date it was 7 inches.
The snowpack at the headwaters of the Crystal River Valley was 97% at Schofield Pass and 97% at McClure Pass as of Friday.
The snowpack at the headwaters of the Fryingpan River Valley was 147% at Ivanhoe Lake and 131% at Kiln, according to the snow telemetry sites.
Skiers and snowboarders will gladly take more of the same that's been dished out so far this winter. Snowfall at the water plant in January is typically 26 inches. Snow is in Aspen's forecast later this week.
It's also where a Kennedy? was killed stupidly throwing a football and running into the ONLY tree on the final wide treeless slope just above the gondola base lift station. (Darwin award candidate?)
R.C.
BTW, I also skied where Sonny Bono supposedly died from hitting a tree the season that happened (at Tahoe?). There was NO WAY anyone could have gotten enough speed up in the middle of those hyper-tightly treed woods to have killed themselves!
RC