With the Colorado River, “everything depends on the spring, how much snowfall we get, but also how warm it will be in the spring and how soon it gets warm,” explained Eric Balken, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute. “That’s what’s been the game changer in recent years. So, for the past several years, we’ve had roughly average snowpacks but we’ve had below average runoffs…getting a good snowpack no longer guarantees a good runoff.”