More than 80 people stood along Cortez’s Main Street on Saturday as part of a nationwide ICE Out protest against aggressive immigration enforcement.
Similar demonstrations took place Friday and Saturday in a number of places around the region, including Durango, Grand Junction, Moab, Utah; and Farmington, New Mexico.
There were a couple of counter-protesters at the rally in Cortez who carried signs saying “Keep America Safe” and “Deter, Detain, Deport.”
Little moisture fell from the sky in January. In Cortez, the month’s precipitation of two-thirds of an inch amounted to just 63 percent of the normal amount.
That follows a year in which Cortez received 90 percent of its 30-year average moisture.
Snowpacks around the state are low. Snotel, or snow water equivalent, readings show the San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan basin was at 50 percent of its 1991-2020 median as of Jan. 30.
Warmer-than-normal temperatures are not helping the snowpacks.
In an email, local weather observer James Andrus said, “If the Long Dry continues, even agnostics and atheists may pray for rain and snow. We need all the help we can get.”
