Monitoring Water and Snowpack

Drought Monitor

The Drought Monitor is an interactive tool developed by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) to collect, quantify, and map reported drought impacts.

Current Drought Conditions in Colorado

Snowpack Climate Stations

Approximately 80% of Colorado’s water comes from snow melt. The SNOTEL Program, managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) measures snowpack in the mountains to forecast water supply.

      Snow Water Equivalent in the Uncompahgre from the National Water and Climate Center

Map of all SNOTEL sites in Colorado

Stream Gauges

In the Uncompahgre Watershed, flow gages are operated by the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Colorado Division of Water Resources (DWR), and the US Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). The nine active stream gages and one reservoir gage collect real-time flow data. The DWR supplies a summary table of flows.

Uncompahgre River Near Ouray
Uncompahgre River Near Ridgway
Dallas Creek Near Ridgway
Ridgway Reservoir

Cow Creek (managed by CO Dept. of Natural Resources)
Uncompahgre River Below Reservoir
Uncompahgre River at Colona
Uncompahgre River at Delta

Streamer from the National Atlas

Provided by the Department of the Interior and the United States Geological Survey, Streamer is an online interactive mapping tool which allows you to explore the different routs of larger river. Users can trace America’s larger streams upstream to their source or downstream to where they empty. Learn more about your stream traces and the places they pass through in brief or detailed reports.

http://nationalatlas.gov/streamer/Streamer/welcome.html