Snowmelt is one of the major sources of surface water supply and ground-water recharge in high elevation areas and can also cause flooding in snow dominated watersheds. Direct estimation of daily snowmelt requires daily snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements that are not always available, especially in places without monitoring stations. There are two alternative approaches to modeling snowmelt without using direct measurements of SWE, temperature-based and energy-based models. Due to its simplicity, computational efficiency, and less input data requirement, the temperature-based method is commonly used than the energy-based method. In the temperature-index approach snowmelt is estimated as a linear function of average air temperature, and the slope of the linear function is called the degree-day factor (DDF). Hence, the DDF is an essential parameter for utilizing the temperature-based method to estimate snowmelt. Thereby, to analyze the spatial properties of DDF, 10 years DDF from the entire state of Colorado was calculated for this research. Likewise, to study the temporal properties, DDFs for 27 years from the White Yampa water basin and the Colorado Headwaters water basin were calculated. As a part of the spatial analysis, the calculated DDFs were correlated with spatial variables (slope, aspect, latitude and elevation) and a …

This issue brief discusses pay secrecy policies that nearly half of workers nationally reported that they were either contractually forbidden or strongly discouraged from discussing their pay with their colleagues. Includes a listing of state laws that protect employees in discussing pay and compensation.

A draft resource management plan (RMP) and environmental impact statement (EIS) to amend the management of over 700,000 acres of BLM land in Coronado and Utah for the preservation of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse (GUSG), a threatened species under the endangered Species Act (ESA).

Fact sheet describing state-specific impacts that global warming will have on the people, ecosystems, and wildlife in Colorado.