Disaster Experts Watch Western Snowpacks

In Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states, emergency management officials are keeping a close eye on the impending runoff from record snowpacks. 20-year records have been set in Yellowstone National Park, the northern Colorado mountains, and in parts of Oregon, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. As Kirk Johnson and Jesse McKinley write in The New York Times, disaster officials are more prepared than they were in 1983, when the last major runoff event caused widespread flooding, but they still fear a sudden thaw. “Some disaster officials say it is the clock that is driving them crazy — every day of postponed melt being cause for a sigh of relief and heightened anxiety from the looming June warmth.” (Thanks to reader Jon Conner for this link.)