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Tribal advocates keep up legal pressure for fair political maps; 12-member jury sworn in for Trump's historic criminal trial; the importance of healthcare decision planning; and a debt dilemma: poll shows how many people wrestle with college costs.

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Civil rights activists say a court ruling could end the right to protest in three southern states, a federal judge lets January 6th lawsuits proceed against former President Trump, and police arrest dozens at a Columbia University Gaza protest.

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Rural Wyoming needs more vocational teachers to sustain its workforce pipeline, Ohio environmental advocates fear harm from a proposal to open 40-thousand forest acres to fracking and rural communities build bike trail systems to promote nature, boost the economy.

CO Snowpack Levels Show A State Divided

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Monday, February 24, 2014   

DENVER - The latest measurements of Colorado's high-country snowpacks show a stark contrast, depending on location. The central and northern mountains have been hit with a series of potent winter storms, but a lot less snow has fallen in the southern part of the state.

Despite the diminished snowpack in the south, said Mage Hultstrand, who measures Colorado's snowpack for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this winter has been generous with moisture.

"The last two water years were below normal," she said, "so this is a great turnaround to see an above-normal year after two drought years."

According to the latest USDA data, snowpack levels range from 142 percent of normal in the South Platte River basin to 82 percent of normal in the Upper Rio Grande.

Snowpack measured in February can give scientists a sense of what runoff will be like in the spring. However, Hultstrand, assistant snow survey supervisor for the USDA's Colorado Snow Survey Program. pointed out that 20 percent of Colorado's annual snowpack comes in March, so basins currently running at a deficit could recover quickly, "especially if the weather patterns they've seen this past month continue.

"The southwest portion of the state, and then also the Upper Rio Grande basins, both received well above normal accumulation during end of January, early part of February," she said. "They just need another couple of storms like that and they'll be right back to normal conditions."

Colorado's snowpack is monitored by a network of more than 100 sensors. They keep track of more than just depth. Hultstrand said they also measure overall moisture content of the snow.

A state snowpack map is online here.


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