This chart shows precipitation across the Upper Colorado River Basin watershed: the mountain headwaters and upland areas that ultimately feed the Colorado River and its major tributaries above Lake Powell. The values are expressed as inches of water spread across the basin, which makes them useful for comparing how wet or dry a water year is at any point in the season.
How To Use This Chart
Cumulative precipitation by water year
The upper chart shows cumulative precipitation for each WATER YEAR. The value at any point is the total basin precipitation that has accumulated up to that day in the season for that water year.
Water-year day comparison
Hover over any water-year day in the upper chart to inspect that point in the season. The readouts update for the hovered day, and the lower chart updates with the value for each water year on that same day.
Controls
Use the series controls to highlight years, compare the current year with close water-year analogs, or hide inactive series.
Upper Colorado River Basin - Precipitation
Data Source
The data for this chart1SNOTEL Upper Colorado River Basin - Precipitation Accumulation Data1 is sourced from SNOTEL, an automated system of snowpack and related climate sensors operated by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the United States Department of Agriculture in the Western United States, and published by the National Water and Climate Center2National Water and Climate Center Snow and Climate Monitoring2.
- 1
SNOTEL Upper Colorado River Basin - Precipitation accumulation data - https://nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/awdb/basin-plots/POR/PREC/assocHUC2/14_Upper_Colorado_Region.html ↩︎
- 2
National Water and Climate Center - Snow and Climate Monitoring - https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/data-and-reports/snow-and-climate-monitoring-predefined-reports-and-maps ↩︎