Brief by Central Staff
Climate – August 1996 – Colorado Central Magazine
We’re not cool. We’re a Disaster Area.
Although afternoon thunderstorms are no longer a novelty, they haven’t cured the effects of a dry winter and spring — a drought.
Thus Colorado Governor Roy Romer on July 9 requested federal disaster designation for 12 more Colorado counties, after making the request for 10 counties in May.
Among the 12 are Custer, Frémont, Chaffee, Lake, and Saguache counties in Central Colorado.
If Romer’s request for disaster designation is approved, the U.S. Department of Agriculture could make low-interest loans to farmers and ranchers who lose significant portions of their crop or pasture and cannot get commercial loans.
Out on the plains, Interstate 70 is the dividing line between wheat crops.
North of the highway, harvests are close to normal. South, it’s about half of normal, with no harvest at all from 700,000 of the 3 million acres that were planted.