Denver Post
August 23, 2008, Steve Lipsher

Steamboat Springs - Rising global temperatures are likely to hasten Colorado's spring snowmelt and bring hotter, drier summers that will strain water supplies, a climate-change expert told a gathering of water managers on Wednesday. Human-induced global warming, which could raise average temperatures by 5 degrees or more over the next century, already appears to be speeding up the cycle of evaporation and precipitation, said Joel Smith, one of the authors of the most recent report of the respected Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Global-climate models also suggest increased occurrences of droughts throughout the West, Smith told the members of the Colorado Water Congress at their annual summer meeting. ...

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