How we verify

Where our conditions come from

Every live number on this site is pulled automatically from a public agency feed every 15 minutes — we don't hand-type conditions, and we don't editorialize the data. Here's exactly what feeds what, and what we keep current by hand.

The pipeline

Automatic, every 15 minutes

A scheduled job fetches each source, normalizes it, and serves a single conditions file the site reads. If a source is down, we keep the last good reading and label it — we never invent a value or show a stale number as “now.”

What you seeSourceCadence
Marina / lake weather + 5-day forecastThe marina's weather station at the lake (Weather Underground PWS, Vallecito Reservoir / KCOBAYFI100) for current conditions, with the National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) as automatic fallback and for the 5-day forecastAuto · 15 min
Weather alerts & Red Flag warningsNational Weather Service active alerts, geo-confirmed to Vallecito (37.40, −107.55). A Red Flag Warning only shows if the alert's own fire-weather zone covers the lake or a point-in-polygon test of its mapped area contains the lake — a neighbor's warning never bleeds in. It shows as a red banner on every page. We raise on the first confirmed read; we only clear after the warning's official end time has passed and two spaced reads (point + zone feeds) agree it's gone. A feed hiccup or empty response holds the warning labeled “verify,” never a false all-clear. See the protocol below.Auto · 15 min
Lake level (storage, % full, elevation)USBR Hydrodata (Reclamation's daily reservoir data) → USACE CWMS → USBR RISE fallback. Note: the older USGS reservoir gauge 09353000 is stale and not used.Auto · 15 min (source updates daily)
Streamflow in (Vallecito Creek + Pine River)USGS instantaneous-values (gauges 09352900 & 09352800)Auto · 15 min
Dam outflow (release to the Pine River)USBR Hydrodata total release (with USACE CWMS fallback) — daily average dam release. Measured at the dam, above the irrigation diversions. Daily series with a 1–3 day lag; flagged when the latest reading is more than 72 hours old.Auto · 15 min (source updates daily)
Wildfires within 50 miNIFC WFIGS incident locations; write-ups via InciWebAuto · 15 min
Road status (Durango access — US 160 / US 550)CDOT / COtrip incidents + road conditions. CR 501 (the final county-road leg) isn't covered by CDOT — see live cameras.Auto · 15 min
Power outages near the lakeLa Plata Electric Association (Milsoft Web Outage Viewer public feed), filtered to outages within ~8 mi of the lake. The outage point is LPEA's reporting rollup anchor (not every meter) and counts can lag — the LPEA outage map is the authority.Auto · 15 min
Air quality (AQI) & wildfire smokeAirNow (EPA) current observations for the nearest reporting area — the Southern Ute Indian Reservation monitor (~30 mi west-southwest, lower elevation), so smoke at the lake can differ; we say “nearest reporting area,” not on-lake. AirNow's forecast for this area is sparse (often ozone only, no smoke outlook), so the smoke forecast relies on NOAA RRFS-Smoke Dust (experimental) + USFS AirFire (SW Colorado), not AirNow. A live NWS Air Quality Alert is surfaced as an advisory, and the CDPHE wildfire-smoke advisory is linked (no clean API to scrape). Graceful: if the AirNow key/API is unavailable the tile shows “—” + links only — never a guessed AQI or advisory.Auto · 15 min
Satellite smoke & fire mapNASA EOSDIS GIBS imagery, centered on the Four Corners with a Vallecito marker: the base is GOES-West GeoColor — geostationary, near-real-time (~10-min, ~40-min latency), refreshing live and built to show smoke moving — with a VIIRS thermal-anomalies overlay for satellite fire detections. A ~10-minute satellite view (coarser than the daily VIIRS still, but live); it complements, not replaces, the live AQI tile and the RRFS-Smoke / AirFire forecasts. Public-domain NASA/NOAA imagery, no key; embedded read-only via Leaflet (WMTS + WMS).~10 min · on view
Fire-restriction stage (Stage 1/2)Auto-read from the San Juan NF orders pages and combined with an editor-maintained La Plata County stage. We show the highest of the Forest, County, and editor stages. A new or higher stage publishes immediately; a reduction never drops automatically — the site keeps showing the higher stage as “pending confirmation” until a person verifies it (a ban lifted by an order we can't reliably parse should never auto-relax).Auto + curated · 15 min

🔴 How fire alerts are localized & triple-checked

Fire danger is the one place a wrong call is dangerous, so this is the most conservative part of the site — quick to raise, slow and confirmed to clear, and it always fails toward caution.

  • Geography. A Red Flag Warning is shown only if it provably covers the lake — its NWS fire-weather zone includes 37.40, −107.55, or a point-in-polygon test of the alert's mapped area contains the lake. An adjacent area's warning is logged but not shown.
  • Corroboration. To raise, one confirmed NWS read is enough. To clear, the point-coordinate feed and the zone feed must both agree there's no warning.
  • Time (debounce). A warning clears only after its official end time has passed and two spaced reads (~30 min apart) confirm it's gone. A skipped or failed check resets that count. A thrown error, an empty response, or a stale read holds the last state — it never clears it.
  • The human gate. Red Flag Warnings clear automatically on their official, dated end time. Restriction reductions (lifting a Stage 1/2 ban) do not — those wait for a person, because bans are lifted by orders we can't reliably parse. After 7 days pending we relabel “reported lifted — verify,” but still never silent-clear.
  • Transparency. Every state shows its source, a timestamp, and a direct link to the official NWS alert or Forest order, so you can always check the primary source yourself.

This makes the awareness trustworthy — it doesn't replace the official channels. Always verify evacuation and closure orders with NWS, the Sheriff, and the Forest Service.

Automated vs. curated

What's a feed, and what's a person

🤖 Automated feeds

Weather, alerts, lake level, streamflow, wildfires, and roads are machine feeds from the agencies above. No human edits the numbers; the job just fetches and normalizes them every 15 minutes.

✍️ Locally curated

Fire-restriction stage, the business directory, emergency contacts, and the trip-planning guides are maintained by local contributors and updated as things change. We re-verify contacts before launch and fix mistakes fast.

Trusted sources

Go straight to the agencies

See something wrong or out of date? Send us a correction — we read everything and fix fast. Conditions on this page link back to the live conditions view.

Editorial policy

Independent & honest

Corrections

Spot something wrong?

Email [email protected] (or use the contact form) — we correct errors promptly and note material corrections on the affected page. Whether it's a number that looks off, an out-of-date business detail, or a broken link, we want to know. We read everything.

Note: live conditions come straight from agency feeds. If a reading looks wrong it may be the agency's own value — when a feed is delayed we keep the last good reading and label it (stale) rather than show a number as “now.”

Photo credits

Where our photos come from

Scenery photos are freely licensed (Creative Commons or public domain) and credited here as the licenses require. David's own lake photos will replace several of these over time.

PhotoUsed onCreditLicense
October 2025 flood — NWS storm-total rainfall mapThe October 2025 FloodNOAA / National Weather Service, Grand JunctionPublic domain (U.S. federal work)
Vallecito Creek Trail footbridge (pre-flood)The October 2025 FloodUSDA Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain (U.S. federal work)
Vallecito Reservoir from orbit, Oct 7 & Oct 17, 2025 (before / after)The October 2025 FloodESA Copernicus Sentinel-2 — “Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2025)”Copernicus open data (free reuse with attribution)
Pagosa Ranger District road washout (Oct 14, 2025)The October 2025 FloodUSDA Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain (U.S. federal work)
Vallecito Campground creekside site (2024)The October 2025 FloodUSDA Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain (U.S. federal work)
Vallecito Reservoir (lake panorama)Home heroJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Vallecito Reservoir Recreation Area (shoreline)Things To Do headerJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Vallecito DamConditions headerJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Vallecito, Colorado (the community / CR 501)Living in Vallecito headerJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Los Pinos RiverFishing headerJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Vallecito CreekFirst-Visit headerUSDA Forest ServicePublic domain
Vallecito Reservoir from the airAbout — “whole lake at a glance”Ken LundCC BY-SA 2.0
Rangers fording Vallecito Creek, 1911About — “the valley's story”USDA Forest ServicePublic domain
Vallecito star trailsThings To Do — StargazingJared LeeCC BY 3.0
Vallecito Creek Trail first bridgeThings To Do — TrailsSFC HCC BY 3.0
Creek-side campsiteFirst-Visit — Where to stayUSDA Forest ServicePublic domain
Weminuche Wilderness aspens (fall)First-Visit — Seasonal weatherWikimedia CommonsPublic domain
Vallecito Creek along the #529 trailTrails — Vallecito Creek #529U.S. Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain
Cave Basin rim overlook (Dollar & Emerald lakes)Trails — Cave Basin #530U.S. Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain
Johnson Creek Trail wildflower meadowTrails — Johnson Creek #821U.S. Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain
Creek-side Forest Service campsiteCamping — Wake up on the waterU.S. Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain
Vallecito Campground welcome / information boardCamping — Forest Service campgroundsU.S. Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain
Vallecito Campground self-registration & camp hostCamping — Forest Service campgroundsU.S. Forest Service, San Juan National ForestPublic domain
Ute delegation in Washington, D.C., 1880 (incl. Southern Ute leader Ignacio)Gallery · AboutMathew Brady · Library of CongressPublic domain
Wah-be-git, a Ute man, 1899GalleryRose & Hopkins · Library of CongressPublic domain
Ute men of the Kah-poh-teh (Capote) band, 1875Gallery · Respect VallecitoTimothy H. O'SullivanPublic domain
Chief Sevara and family, Ute, ca. 1885GalleryDetroit Photographic Co. (via DPLA)Public domain
Ute children (undated)GalleryLibrary of CongressPublic domain
Colorado blue columbine (state flower), San Juan NFGallery — WildflowersJosé GarridoCC BY 4.0
Indian paintbrush, southeastern San JuansGallery — WildflowersPatrick AlexanderCC0 (public domain)
Elephant heads, San Juan MountainsGallery — WildflowersZac PetersonCC BY 4.0
Mountain bluebells (Mertensia bakeri), San JuansGallery — WildflowersPatrick AlexanderCC0 (public domain)
Wildflowers in American Basin, San JuansGallery — WildflowersBureau of Land ManagementCC BY 2.0
Kayaking on Vallecito ReservoirGallery — The lake todayAlan Levine (cogdog)CC BY 2.0
Wolf Creek Pass in winter (San Juans)Winter & Access headerCorey LeopoldCC BY 2.0
San Juan NF forest roadMiddle Mountain headerPaxson WoelberCC BY 2.0
Continental Divide Trail, Weminuche WildernessGalleryCharlie DeTarCC BY-SA 3.0
Emerald Lake, Weminuche WildernessGalleryPenguin314CC BY-SA 4.0
Weminuche Wilderness high countryGallery · Plan Your VisitDelaywavesCC BY 3.0
Mouth of Weminuche CreekGalleryJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Bald eagleGallery · WildlifeUSFWSPublic domain
Osprey with a fishGallery · FishingUSFWSPublic domain
Rocky Mountain bull elkGallery · Wildlife“MONGO” (Wikimedia)Public domain
MooseGalleryUSDA Forest ServicePublic domain
American black bearGallery · WildlifeUSFWSPublic domain
Rocky Mountain bighorn sheepGallerydw_rossCC BY 2.0
Historic USGS Vallecito Reservoir 7.5′ quadrangle, 1964 (NE / Middle Mountain corner)Middle Mountain — MapsU.S. Geological Survey — Historical Topographic Map CollectionPublic domain
Rocky Mountain ponderosa pineFirewise LivingJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Fire lookouts at the Devil Mountain tower, Piedra District (1957)Firewise LivingUSDA Forest ServicePublic domain
La Plata MountainsGalleryChris M MorrisCC BY 2.0
San Juan ranch country near PiedraGalleryJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Vallecito Reservoir (across the water)Gallery — the lake todayJeffrey BeallCC BY 4.0
Hiking toward Ice Lake Basin, San Juan NFGallery — the lake todayPaxson WoelberCC BY-SA 4.0
Alpine meadow near Jura KnobGallery — wild & scenicChris M MorrisCC BY 2.0

Each linked author/source goes to the original; each license links to its deed. The Weminuche aspen shot is in the wilderness above the lake (not the reservoir itself). The social-share image (og-default, 1200×630) is a crop of the home lake panorama — Jeffrey Beall, CC BY 4.0. If you're a photographer and want a credit corrected or an image removed, tell us.

Partner-supplied images

Featured-partner profile pages and listings use images provided by, or drawn from the public web presence of, the businesses themselves — on a courtesy basis as part of their partnership. They remain the property of those businesses.

ImageUsed onCourtesy of
Marina dock & boatsMarina listing & profileVallecito Marina & Yacht Club
Country Market logoMarket listing & profileVallecito Lake Country Market
RV park & cabinsLodging listing & profileBlue Spruce RV Park & Cabins
Mountain worship photoCommunity listing & profileVallecito Church
Branded trailer & job photosTrash & Junk Removal listing & profileJunk Genies (paid partner)
Market & holiday photos, organizers & event flyerCommunity listing & profilePondering Pines Maker's Market (David Kontje / the organizers)
Guide logos (Fisher Guide Service, Vallecito Lake Outfitters)Fishing guide cardsEach guide business (from their website)

We've asked these partners for additional photos — including a Vallecito Church building exterior and a Country Market storefront — and will add them as they're supplied.

Fish illustrations & the fishing photo

The species plates on the fishing page are U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service illustrations — public domain (the Duane Raver series), except the kokanee, which is a public-domain photo. No attribution is required; we credit them as a courtesy.