AP NewsWatch

I'm Ben Thomas with an AP News Minute.

A warm dry winter in the mountains of Colorado

does not bode well for the droughts trick in West.

This is our worst snow year on record.

Maureen Gunch is a hydrologist with the Department of Agriculture,

conducting a snow survey in a section of the Rocky Mountains

considered the headwaters of the Colorado River.

This is our third site of the day, first site that had any snow.

And that could mean water shortages, not only for Colorado,

but much of the West.

From our soils, agriculture, drinking water,

all of that depends on snow.

Cities in the region are imposing water use restrictions

and ranchers like Philip Anderson.

Now normally here we'd be walking in water.

Or wondering how they'll feed in water, they're cattle.

In the pasture that we normally cab in,

there's no pond water, no stock water.

Add to that the threat of wildfires.

I'm Ben Thomas.