FRISCO, Colorado ‒ Stretching out in their beach chairs as the temperature climbed toward 70 degrees, Seth and Renee McLaughlin watched their three kids play in the sand on what was supposed to be family ski trip.
Booked last November, their spring break vacation to Colorado's mountains required a hard shift in plans following a historically warm and dry winter: Instead of zipping down the slopes, the couple watched their kids sift sand into colorful toy buckets on the shores of Lake Dillon.
"It’s obviously frustrating. You want to go skiing, and usually we ski until May, and instead we’re at the beach," said Seth McLaughlin, 44, a nonprofit consultant. "I feel bad for the folks who spent tens of thousands of dollars to come on vacation here."
The McLaughlins' ruined vacation is a harbinger of what climatologists say will be a dangerously dry summer across the West. In many areas, all-important snowfall has been half of normal, with even hotter, drier temperatures expected in the coming months.
Much of the nation is in drought already, but the headwaters of the Colorado River is among the driest places, along with south Texas and all of Florida. Alarmed civic officials across the West have already begun ordering restrictions on watering lawns, cleaning cars and even whether restaurant patrons get served glasses of water.
