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Colorado - Mon. 03/16/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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COLORADO: HOTTEST WINTER ON RECORD
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Last week, researchers at Colorado State University confirmed average temperatures from December through February in Colorado were the highest on record, breaking the previous record by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The record-shattering heat makes Colorado one of nine states in the West to have experienced their warmest winter on record in 2025-26, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. County-level NOAA data shows roughly one-third of the U.S. population experienced record winter warmth as measured by daytime highs.
In Colorado, average temperatures from December through February were more than 8 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average and 1.6 degrees above the previous record, set in the winter of 1980-81. The state’s climate summary highlights what it calls a “staggering” statistic maintained by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information: the one-, two-, three- and five-year periods ending in February are the warmest such periods on record in Colorado’s 131-year history of collected temperature data.
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NO SNOW, LOW TOURIST NUMBERS, EVEN RFTA RIDERSHIP IS DOWN
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Through February, bus ridership in the Roaring Fork Valley is down around 12 percent from this time in 2025. It’s also down 3 percent from the average of the last five years of ridership by February of each year. Ridership decreases are not isolated to specific transportation routes in the valley, as almost all of them are seeing significant decreases in use compared to 2025. The Aspen Highlands direct bus has transported 22 percent fewer passengers per hour this year; Buttermilk is down 6 percent and Ride Glenwood is down 15 percent. One of the only routes that has seen increased usage this year was the X Games bus, which saw a 13 percent increase in passengers per hour in 2026, according to RFTA data through February.
Despite the decreased ridership, RFTA revenue actually increased in the beginning of 2026. In January, ridership was down 6 percent according to RFTA data, but revenue was up 3 percent compared to 2025. According to their data, the revenue increase is due to a 12-cent increase in average bus fares from $1.14 per ride to $1.25 per ride.
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THORNTON IMPOSES DROUGHT RESTRICTIONS, MORE MAY BE COMING
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The city of Thornton enacted Stage 1 drought restrictions last week, the first municipality in the Denver metro area to do so. Thornton places a mandatory twice-weekly limit on outdoor watering. Aurora will likely impose restrictions soon as the Aurora City Council will have a study session on the city’s water situation March 23 and the council will potentially impose watering restrictions at its April 6 meeting. Aurora officials note the city has its lowest snowpack since 1978. Although Denver Water could likely follow Thornton’s lead by the end of the month for its 1.5 million customers, the good news is that Denver Water’s storage capacity stands close to 80 percent, not too far off the 85 percent it typically has at this point. Greg Fisher, Denver Water’s manager of demand planning and efficiency, expects the Board of Water Commissioners to enact a Stage 1 declaration by the end of March.
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SUMMIT COUNTY TO CLOSE SWAN MOUNTAIN ROAD TO COMPLETE CONSTRUCTION
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Last summer, from July through October, crews worked on the north end of the Swan Mountain Road in a reconstruction project. The road was not closed during the work, instead there were only intermittent full closures and partial lane closures. The Summit County commissioners now have decided to completely close down the Swan Mountain Road this summer to complete the reconstruction work at the south end, from Sapphire Point to Farmer’s Korner. In a statement regarding the closure, commissioner Eric Mamula explained that a full closure will be safer for construction crews, motorists and bicyclists and will save the county “a considerable amount of money.” He noted the full closure "...will shorten the overall time that Swan Mountain is under repair.” The project is estimated to take 14 weeks, with work originally slated to begin May 15, unseasonably warm and dry weather may allow an earlier start.
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EVEN WITHOUT YOUR OFFICE POOL, AMERICANS WILL BET $3.3B ON MARCH MADNESS
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The American Gaming Association (AGA) estimates that Americans will legally wager $3.3 billion on the NCAA Division I Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournaments this year. Estimates from the AGA do not include money wagered offshore or in office bracket pools. Last year, the AGA estimated that a total of $2.72 billion would be legally wagered on the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments, and the 2026 figure reflects a 54 percent increase over the past three years. It is more than double the $1.39 billion that AGA estimated would be bet on this year's Super Bowl.
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FEDEX OVERTAKES UPS IN MARKET VALUE
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For the first time in history, FedEx topped United Parcel Service this week in market capitalization. Although UPS still delivers more packages than FedEx, Wall Street rewarded the cost-cutting measures taken by FedEx to boost profits. FedEx shares have climbed nearly 40 percent in the past two years, while UPS shares have dropped by about the same amount. On Monday, FedEx was valued at $84.9 billion, about $44 million more than its rival, the first time that FedEx was worth more since UPS went public in 1999. Looking forward, FedEx officials told investors the company has become more resilient and is focused on business-to-business deliveries, especially in the healthcare, automotive, datacenter and aerospace industries. UPS said in January it planned to cut an additional 30,000 roles this year, after cutting 48,000 in 2025. Early last year, CEO Carol Tomé announced plans to wind down UPS’s partnership with Amazon to focus on higher-margin business.
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IF YOU HAD A DAY-AND-A-HALF IN THE GRAND VALLEY, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
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The New York Times had Grand Junction and the Grand Valley in its weekly “36 Hours” feature which appeared last week. The “36 Hours in Grand Junction, Colo.” was published March 12 and featured “Key Stops” of the Grand Mesa, Colorado National Monument and Bin 707 restaurant. The article, written by Basalt-based author Cindy Hirschfeld, noted that although Grand Junction and the Grand Valley are known for their abundance of outdoor recreational opportunities, with desert, mountain and river access, now the city has "...a small but growing destination-dining scene, new hotels, expanded arts programming and improvements like an ambitious riverfront development with an amphitheater and the historic train depot’s planned restoration," all aspects of what the author labeled the city's "ambience."
The “36 Hours” are focused on what to do over a weekend and for the Grand Valley it includes Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range, Palisade, the James M. Robb-Colorado River State Park, mountain biking the Lunch Loop trail system, the Colorado National Monument, downtown Grand Junction, and the Grand Mesa. The article is available at the link below.
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CPW WILL IMPLEMENT NEW FIREARMS SAFETY PROGRAM BEGINNING AUG. 1
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In 2025, the Colorado General Assembly passed significant legislation regarding Specified Semiautomatic Firearms (SSF), primarily through Senate Bill 25-003, which was signed into law on April 10, 2025. For the past few months, Colorado Parks and Wildlife have been holding meetings and providing information on how the new program will be administered and the education course related to the legislation which requires the permitting and training for anyone purchasing certain semiautomatic firearms, including AK- and AR-style rifles on or after Aug. 1, 2026. Those who are in possession of an SSF prior to Aug. 1, 2026, are not affected by this new legislation. Those purchasing or transferring a qualified semiautomatic firearm on or after Aug. 1, 2026, will be required to pass a background check and attend an in-person safety course. CPW outlines the process:
- An applicant must complete an application on the CPW website and take it to their county sheriff’s office, along with a completed background check and government-issued photo ID
- With these submissions, there will be a fee applied to cover both CPW and sheriffs’ costs
- The sheriff’s office will determine eligibility and enter this into the online system developed by Parks and Wildlife
- The applicant then must take the short, four-hour basic semiautomatic course if they have previously taken a CPW-certified hunter education course
- If they haven’t taken the hunter ed course, they will be required to take both courses
- Once the customer completes the firearm safety course, they will be required to take an in-person exam
- If the individual passes, they will be able to purchase the firearm
- Throughout the process, each step will be recorded by Parks and Wildlife, sheriffs’ offices, firearms safety instructors and firearms dealers in the system created by the state wildlife agency
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VISITOR NUMBERS AT COLORADO’S NATIONAL PARK FELL IN 2025
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Rocky Mountain National Park has ranked in the top five in attendance at the U.S. national parks over the past decade, as high as third in 2015 and 2018, and fourth or fifth in the other years since 2013. Last year, although RMNP had a very slight increase in visitor numbers (17,082), it fell out of the top five. Rocky Mountain NP had 4,171,431 visitors in 2025, but Yosemite moved ahead of it into fifth place with 4,278,413 visitors, an increase of 156,000 over 2024. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was No. 1, as usual, with 11,527,939, accounting for 12 percent of all visits to national parks. Zion was No. 2 (4,984,525), followed by Yellowstone (4,762,988), Grand Canyon (4,430,653), and Yosemite.
Colorado's other three national parks all experienced declines in 2025:
- Mesa Verde (No. 43 in total attendance): 463,130, down from 480,165
- Great Sand Dunes (No. 44): 432,498, down from 437,661
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison (No. 50): 250,086, down from 335,862; however, the 225 percent decrease was due to the South Rim Fire, which forced closure in July
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PALISADE MAKES USA TODAY’S 10 BEST FLOWER FESTIVALS
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USA Today released several of its “10Best” lists this month. Among those was the USA TODAY 10Best Flower Festivals 2026, and Palisade made the ranking:
- Daffodil Festival at Gibbs Gardens, Ball Ground, Ga.
- Rochester Lilac Festival, Rochester, N.Y.
- Zoo Blooms at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio
- Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, Seattle, Wash.
- Mackinac Island Lilac Festival, Mackinac Island, Mich.
- Dollywood’s Flower and Food Festival, Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
- North Carolina Azalea Festival, Wilmington, N.C.
- Tulip Time, Holland, Mich.
- Colorado Lavender Festival, Palisade
- Nashville Cherry Blossom Festival, Nashville, Tenn.
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2026 ACADEMY AWARDS WINNERS
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The 98th Academy Awards took place March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and were hosted by Conan O’Brien; the ceremony honored achievements across film categories and introduced the first-ever Academy casting award.
- Best Picture: One Battle After Another
- Director: Paul Thomas Anderson — One Battle After Another
- Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan — Sinners
- Best Actress: Jessie Buckley — Hamnet
- Best Supporting Actor: Sean Penn — One Battle After Another
- Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan — Weapons
- Original Screenplay: Sinners — Ryan Coogler
- Adapted Screenplay: One Battle After Another — Paul Thomas Anderson
- Original Score: Sinners — Ludwig Göransson
- Original Song: “Golden” — KPop Demon Hunters
- Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters
- International Feature Film: Sentimental Value — Norway
- Documentary Feature: Mr. Nobody Against Putin
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MARKET UPDATE - 03/13/2026 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 03/12/2026)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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