Denver Water’s Climate Change Adaptation Program works to raise awareness and understanding of climate change impacts within Denver Water and throughout the broader water sector. 

Three key messages guide this advocacy and have proven effective in advancing climate adaptation at Denver Water: 

• Climate change is here and now.
• Climate change is water change.
• Climate change impacts all Denver Water business functions.

Denver Water’s Climate Change Adaptation Program integrates climate adaptation into all areas of Denver Water's operations, such as reducing employee safety risks from extreme heat or working with water quality and treatment staff to monitor cyanobacteria blooms. This ensures climate adaptation becomes a natural part of the work done every day throughout the organization. 

From its beginnings as a water utility, Denver Water has recognized the importance of conducting long-term planning to adapt to future uncertainty. Continuing this long history of proactive long-range planning, Denver Water is investigating different ways that climate change could impact our water supplies and utility operations in the future.   

Denver Water works closely with researchers and water resources practitioners to coproduce practical tools and science that advance the fields of climate adaptation and water management. Denver Water’s Climate Adaptation Team actively collaborates with the local, national and international water resources community to share expertise, stay up to date on the latest climate science, and support climate-resilient programs and initiatives. 

These include developing leading practices in climate change adaptation as a founding member of the Water Utility Climate Alliance, managing Denver’s water resources holistically through One Water, coproducing the Climate Change in Colorado Report with the Colorado Climate Center, and mitigating the risk of high-intensity wildfires in Denver Water’s watersheds through the From Forests to Faucets Partnership.
 

As climate change impacts increase, diversifying Denver Water’s water supply portfolio is critical for maintaining a reliable and resilient system. Denver Water is investing in a range of surface and recycled water supplies, as well as investigating the feasibility of storing water underground through aquifer storage and recovery.

Climate change means that the environmental systems of today act differently than the environmental systems of the past. To address this, Denver Water’s Climate Change Adaptation Program focuses on providing accurate tools and data for making informed and adaptive water management decisions. Denver Water continually evaluates and updates tools and methods to address changing climate conditions, such as partnering with entities throughout Colorado to improve snowpack measurements. 

Denver Water recognizes that sustainability is an essential part of climate adaptation — reducing carbon emissions globally will help mitigate the long-term impacts of climate change on Denver Water’s operations. Denver Water is actively reducing its own carbon footprint by supporting renewable energy projects and has set a goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Temperature: According to the 2024 Climate Change in Colorado report, statewide average annual temperatures have warmed by 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit from 1980 to 2022. Between now and 2050, statewide temperatures are projected to increase an additional 1 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit. In Denver, only three years since 2000 had below-average annual temperatures.

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The graph above is adapted from the third edition of the Climate Change in Colorado report (2024) and shows the annual Fahrenheit temperature anomaly in Denver with respect to the 1971-2000 average. The 1895-2022 trend (yellow dashed line), 1980-2022 trend (red dashed line), and 10-year running average (gray line) are included.

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The graph above is adapted from Weather5280 and shows the number of days per year that were 90 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter in Denver. Blue bars show years with less than 40 days at or exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and yellow bars show years with 40 or more days at or exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Precipitation: Precipitation dynamics in Colorado are quite complex, thanks to Colorado’s split mountains/plains environment combined with larger circulation patterns, including the North American Monsoon, the Polar Jet Stream, El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Polar Vortex, as well as local patterns like upslopes, downslopes and the Denver Cyclone. 

Because of Colorado’s complex and varying precipitation sources, it is highly uncertain how precipitation patterns will change in Colorado. Some climate models project an increase in precipitation and others project a decrease or no change. However, climate change is expected to make precipitation patterns more extreme, leading to greater swings between very dry and very wet years.

Snowpack: A warmer climate is causing snowpack to melt earlier on average, reducing the amount of water available for our customers in late summer and fall.

Evaporative demand and soil moisture: As it gets hotter, more water evaporates from reservoirs, rivers, and soil, which can stress trees and vegetation, and make wildfires more intense and frequent.

Streamflow: A warmer climate is reducing on average the amount of water in rivers and streams that feed our reservoirs, and that’s expected to get worse. With that said, streamflow varies considerably in Colorado, which means we may see some years well above average while others are well below. The timing of spring runoff is expected to shift one to four weeks earlier through mid-century.

Wildfire: Over the past three decades, multiple catastrophic wildfires have impacted Denver Water’s collection system. Warmer, drier weather is expected to increase the size, frequency and intensity of wildfires in our high-elevation forested watersheds. Severe wildfires place watersheds at a higher risk for flooding, which can increase sediment and debris in our water supplies and make water more difficult to treat.

Drought: More frequent and severe droughts will occur in Colorado under a warming climate. The ongoing megadrought in the Southwest, driven by warmer temperatures, is the worst drought in 1,200 years. In addition, climate scientists have observed a long-term shift to drier conditions in the region — a process known as aridification.

Extreme weather: Colorado is experiencing more frequent and more intense heat waves, and it will get worse in the future. Heavy and extreme rains are also projected to increase with future warming. 

Water use: Lawns, trees and other urban landscaping will need more water to survive with higher temperatures and lower soil moisture.