Weeks of snowy, cool weather has officials feeling a little more optimistic about the water-supply situation as the state heads into summer. As of May 15, snowpack in the Upper Colorado River basin, which includes Summit County's Blue River, was 89 percent of average; year-to-date precipitation in the basin totaled 92 percent of average on Saturday.

Despite below-average snowpack in all of Colorado's river basins this year, reservoirs are expected to be in good shape this summer, the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Lakewood announced today. Full reservoirs can mainly be attributed to good snow and reservoir accumulations the previous two years, according to the NRCS.

The spring runoff season is an exciting time for hydrologists. “This is our favorite time of year,” said Bryon Lawrence, a hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Grand Junction.

High mountain locations could be hit earlier and harder by global warming than surrounding terrain, according to the results of an Oregon State University study released last week. In some cases, temperatures at the mountaintops and ridges could warm three times as much as the air in nearby valleys.

A good winter's snow doesn't necessarily mean a lot of water for reservoirs in the spring and summer, a National Weather Service hydrologist says. Take Vallecito and Lemon reservoirs, for instance. The snowpack in the San Juan Mountains that feeds the Animas, Dolores, Pine and San Juan rivers and fills reservoirs peaked at 101 percent of average on April 1.

Yet another winter has been dusted in Southwest Colorado. Durango is again weathering dust storms that are accelerating run-off and denuding the region’s snowpack. However, Southeast Utah could be riding to Southwest Colorado’s rescue. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is hoping that designating wilderness in canyon country could help keep future dust storms at bay.

For the second year in a row, heavy winds out of the south and west have coated the mountains – with a layer of reddish-brown dust from the deserts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The dust absorbs heat from sunlight and melts the snow more quickly. Snowpack in the Arkansas River Basin, 107 percent of average three weeks ago, was at 87 percent Friday.

The National Weather Service said below average snowpack in southwest Colorado's San Juan Mountains means less spring runoff for northwest New Mexico rivers. National Weather Service hydrologist Bryon Lawrence in Grand Junction, CO., said snowpack in the San Juan's recently has fallen below average for this time of year.

Ten days after the start of the 2010 irrigation year, the water forecast for Montezuma Valley remains murky.

The Colorado snowpack didn't improve much in March as an El Nino weather pattern held on. The snowpack was about 90 percent of average statewide as of Monday, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. That was up slightly from 88 percent on April 1.