MESSAGE FROM ALPINE BANK: MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY HOLIDAY CLOSURE

All Alpine Bank branches will be closed on Monday, Jan. 18 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Please use Alpine Online or the Alpine Mobile app for 24/7 banking access, even when we are closed. Learn more at the link below.

NO ANIMALS, NO STOCK SHOW OPENS WAY FOR REBUILDING NATIONAL WESTERN CAMPUS

In September, officials of the National Western Stock Show canceled the 2021 event. It was the first time since 1922, the National Western Stock Show was not held. With no livestock to auction or rodeos or crowds, construction crews are taking over as progress moves forward on the $1 billion redevelopment project at the 250-acre National Western Campus. This week testing was completed for two rail lines of the Denver Rock Island Railroad that pass through the property. Construction will now begin on the bridge to carry 51st Avenue over the Platte River and on a project to bury two 72-inch sewer lines. The project is still on track to complete the first two phases in 2024.

EVEN WITH LIMITS ON SKIERS, MLK JR WEEKEND WILL BE BUSY ON I-70

The Martin Luther King Jr. weekend usually ranks as the fifth-busiest of the year for traffic on the Interstate 70 Mountain Corridor, as measured by traffic counts at the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnels. The three-day weekend ranks behind only Independence Day, Presidents Day, Labor Day and Memorial Day. So far this ski season, ski traffic is down, with 995,646 vehicles passing through the tunnels in December, which is down about 8.9 percent compared to December 2019. If you are leaving Denver for the weekend, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation suggests leaving before noon on Friday and before 7 a.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

DELTA LOOKS TO SURVIVE THE WINTER, THEN TRAVEL REBOUND POSSIBLE

Delta Air Lines Thursday reported a loss of $755 million for the fourth quarter, compared with a profit of $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019. For the year, Delta had losses of nearly $12.4 billion, the carrier's worst year ever. U.S airlines had a brief surge in passenger volumes for the Christmas-New Year's holiday, with a high for the pandemic period of 1.3 million going through checkpoints on Jan. 3. With the implementation of a COVID-19 vaccine program, Delta and other U.S. airlines are hopeful of a rebound in travel. Delta is already seeing more searches for flights on its website.

RFTA TO PROVIDE $2.27 MILLION FOR GLENWOOD'S 27TH STREET UNDERPASS

The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority board Thursday voted unanimously in favor of allocating $2.27 million to make up the funding gap for the planned underpass at 27th Street in Glenwood Springs. The underpass is to provide safer access to the South Glenwood bus station. The underpass is estimated to cost $10.1 million and RFTA had already allocated $4.3 million as well as $3 million that came from state funding.

COLORADO CLASSIC POSTPONES 2021 RACE, HOPES TO RESTART IN 2022

The Colorado Classic women's bicycle race Thursday announced it was canceling the 2021 event and focusing on returning in 2022. It is the second year the Colorado Classic has been canceled due to the pandemic. The Colorado Classic was the cycling event that replaced the short-lived USA Pro Cycling Challenge and began in 2017 with both men's and women's races before changing to women's-only format in 2019. While Vail, Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs had all previously hosted stages of the race, the canceled 2020 race had been scheduled to begin with a 60-mile stage in event newcomer Snowmass Village.

SNOWPACK OFFERS LITTLE HOPE FOR RELIEF OF DROUGHT

The statewide average snowpack Thursday was 74 percent of median, according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Upper Colorado River Basin was even lower, standing at 70 percent of median, while the Gunnison River Basin recorded 68 percent. On the Grand Mesa, there was even less snow, with the NRCS Grand Mesa snow measuring sites showing depths ranging from 46 percent to 57 percent of the median. The NRCS projects streamflow volumes during runoff for rivers in western Colorado to range from 64 percent to 68 percent of average. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week reported that combined average annual precipitation last year in Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico was the second-lowest on record and the lowest since 1956.

UPBEAT MESSAGE IN TELLURIDE STATE OF THE TOWN ADDRESS

Mayor DeLanie Young Tuesday delivered her State of the Town address at the regular meeting of the Telluride Town Council. The mayor noted that "there is much for which to be grateful," with residents receiving assistance in the form of food, rent relief and the town planning and building more employee housing. Other positives for the town included increased involvement in local government proceedings, sales tax collections that equaled those in 2019 and record Real Estate Transfer Tax collections.

DROUGHT IMPACTS DURANGO FISH HATCHERY

Typically, in January, there are about 1,000 gallons of water per minute from the Animas River flowing through the Colorado Parks and Wildlife's Durango Fish Hatchery near Main Avenue and 16th Street. Currently, there are only 700 gallons per minute flowing through the hatchery. This time of year, the hatchery is holding the most number of fish, some 1 million, in preparation for spring stocking of lakes and streams. With the low flow at the hatchery, CPW crews were forced last week to stock some 28,000 mature rainbow trout. In some locations, like Summit Reservoir and Joe Moore Reservoir north of Mancos, that meant cutting through ice on the reservoirs to stock the trout.

NASA: 2020 TIED THE RECORD FOR HOTTEST YEAR

Thursday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration released a study which showed 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record since record-keeping began in 1880.

• The globally averaged temperature last year was second highest today, just 0.04 degrees Fahrenheit below 2016
• For the contiguous U.S., 2020 was the 5th-warmest on record
• All five of the warmest years on record have occurred since 2012
• Global average sea surface temperature in 2020 was the third highest on record
• Europe and Asia in 2020 were the warmest on record
• North America had its 10th warmest year on record