On Nov. 1, SNOTEL data indicated basin snowpacks were over 130 percent of average. Unfortunately, a poor showing during November resulted in a drop in snowpack percentages by Dec. 1 to a mere 65 percent of average.

If there is a single certainty to the erratic endeavor of predicting flow levels of Colorado whitewater, it is that nothing is for certain. Ever. There are too many variables. Since Colorado draws the majority of its river water from snowmelt, there is the matter of not only how much snow falls, but where and when.

Tracking snow levels is a job for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. In the mid-1930s, the U.S. Congress mandated the service, then the Soil Conservation Service, to measure and track snowpack in the Western United States and Alaska. Until 1980 these measurements were taken manually.