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<br />Jack Bvers. Deputy Director. Division of Water Resources <br />Mr. Byers passed out a "Major Reservoir Capacity" map for April 7, 2003. He explained <br />during the last two years snow pack has melted out sooner than usual, and that if the <br />temperature and winds stay down we could get a lot of that snow melt in our reservoirs. <br />Mr. Byers said the general overlook of the map indicates we have a water storage drought <br />that will continue through this year and probably for 3-4 years depending on individual <br />basins and size of reservoirs. He stated the water storage and water supply drought in <br />this state is still critical and remains critical through this year. Lastly, he said they are <br />looking at this drought through a streamflow basis. <br /> <br />Klaus Wolter NOAA Climate Diagnostic Center: for Roger Pielke. State Climatologist <br />Mr. Wolter explained that the snowstorm we had in March was the biggest storm <br />Colorado ever had in terms of water equivalent. March was very warm and dry in the <br />first part; the second half was really wet with temperatures normal or slightly above <br />normal-nothing like last year. The southwest comer is our greatest concern for the <br />drought. He said the wet season for us is coming right now, and we are expecting a <br />normal year; however, the eastern plains and western slope will remain dry. <br /> <br />Bob Glancv. National Weather Service. Short Term Weather Forecast <br />Mr. Glancy reported that the next two weeks will be unsettled with storms. The storms <br />will be in the high country as well as on the plains. Easter Sunday will be dry. The next <br />storms will favor the northern and eastern part of the state over the southwest. Lastly, he <br />said there would be a series of storms for April with lower spring-type temperatures. <br /> <br />Klaus Wolter. NOAA Climate Diagnostic Center. Long Term Weather Outlook <br /> <br />Mr. Wolter said this month of May would be our last chance for a wet El Nino. He said <br />we have already had a wet spring so far, and that this was one of the few places in the <br />country where El Nino really delivered what was expected. <br /> <br />The following executive summAry has been added to the minutes: <br /> <br />1. El Nino continues to fade and has now crossed the threshold back to near-normal <br />conditions in the eastern equatorial Pacific. However, lingering SST and atmospheric <br />circulation anomalies over the full North Pacific basin, as well as the Caribbean continue <br />to support El Nino-like anomalies. Therefore, recent impacts over Colorado have been <br />consistent with El Nino-related expectations made public as early as last fall. <br /> <br />2. Historically, El Nino has been associated with wetter than average conditions for <br />November, March, and May in particular in Colorado, often translating into decent early <br />season skiing conditions (indeed!), as well as a prolonged wet spring (off to a good <br />start!). Unfortunately, reduced snowfall over the north-central mountains during <br />December-February is common under El Nino as well, so the last two seasons have <br />evolved pretty much as expected, if a little bit on the low end for southwest Colorado. <br />However, the last three months have been on the wet side, reducing the accumulated <br />deficit since November for much of the interior southwestern U.S. The historic storm of <br />March 17-20 boosted the snowpack along and east of the Continental Divide by several <br />inches (more than 4" in the South Platte basin), or more than 30%. The most recent storm <br />