Drought-stricken Colorado gets record-breaking rainfall; video captures water history and planning

The Colorado River is not as thirsty after record rainfalls.
(Jared Ewy video snapshot, The Daily Yonder)

After years of drought and water conservation efforts, Coloradans are finally “singing in the rain.” Mother Nature was generous. “For many counties around the Centennial State, June 2023 is now the wettest month on record. The National Weather Service has Denver beating the previous high mark by over an inch,” reports Jared Ewy of The Daily Yonder. Denver’s previous record of 4.96 inches in June 1882 was “washed away” by this June’s walloping 6.1 inches.

And with all the rain, another challenge arises. Where does the water go? Ewy found some answers at Northern Water, a government agency "that’s been tracking and wrangling water for nearly a century." Ewy writes, "Locally, they may be best known as the facilitator of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. It’s a water-diverting behemoth that pumps water from the Colorado River basin on the western side of the Continental Divide to the Big Thompson River basin on the eastern side."

Ewy's light-hearted and informative video features a brief history of the Big Thompson water project paired with some shocking numbers on the massive water capacity of Chimney Hollow Reservoir. Ewy writes, "Water is spilling out of reservoirs like Granby Lake and continuing its journey down the Colorado River and to Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Southwestern Colorado."

You're going to want to watch this: