text: A spring snowstorm and icy roads caught Colorado drivers by surprise Friday, causing a 39-vehicle pileup near Boulder and other bad wrecks that shut down highways during the morning commute. No serious injuries were reported in the crashes on U.S. Highway 36 between Boulder and Denver, but tow-truck drivers were kept busy hauling away damaged cars. Lisa Lai told the Daily Camera newspaper she avoided hitting a crash in front of her and ended up propped against a highway barrier — and out of the way — as other peoples' vehicles piled up. A tow truck driver works to clear the scene of a multi-vehicle pileup  on U.S. Highway 36, Friday near Boulder, Colo. A car is stuck under a semi tractor trailer at the scene of a multi-vehicle pileup  on U.S. Highway 36 . Numerous crashes and spin outs on icy and snowy highways have closed portions of several interstates and highways in the Denver and Colorado Springs area as well as the mountains . 'My car was just sitting there on this little island on its own,' she said. 'It was pretty surreal. I feel pretty lucky today.' In Aurora, near Denver, one person died after being thrown from an Oldsmobile Bravada that lost control and rolled on an icy stretch of Interstate 225, striking a passing public bus. The only person on the bus was its driver, who wasn't hurt. Another person in the Oldsmobile was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. Near Fort Carson, the Colorado State Patrol responded to a series of rush-hour crashes involving a total of nearly 20 cars. In the mountains, Interstate 70 was temporarily closed after several trucks spun out on snowy Vail Pass. At lower elevations, the storm left only light snow on grass, and roads were largely clear because of recent warm weather. However, motorists driving at normal speeds were surprised by icy patches, especially on bridges, said Trooper James Schmidt of the Colorado State Patrol. 'We're in Colorado. We have four seasons in one day,' Schmidt said after the sun emerged. A tow truck driver works to clear the scene of cleanup on the pileup  on . Drivers of damaged cars wait at the scene of a multi-vehicle pileup . No serious injuries were reported in the crashes on U.S. Highway 36 between Boulder and Denver, but tow-truck drivers were kept busy hauling away damaged cars . And drought-weary Californians, who can't expect much encouragement from mountains elsewhere in the West: Snow that fills the Colorado River is lagging, too, officials said Friday. The snowpack in the Colorado and Wyoming valleys where the river originates now ranges from 51 to 79 per cent of normal, said Brian Domonkos, Colorado supervisor of the U.S. Department of Agriculture snow survey, which monitors snowfall and water availability. The Colorado River supplies water to about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles of farmland in seven states, including California. A driver stands amid vehicles involved in an accident on wrecked cars . The Rocky Mountain snow that melts into the river doesn't flow directly to California and other downstream users. Instead, it's held in a series of reservoirs that release enough water to fulfill the legal allotments to southwestern states under a series of agreements and court rulings. The reservoirs have sufficient water to provide California and other downstream states with their full shares this year and for the foreseeable future, said Matthew Allen, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the reservoir system. California also gets water from the Sierra Nevada range, where the snow cover was the lowest it has ever been in 65 years of record-keeping as of Wednesday. Warm temperatures and scarce snowfall in early March caused the snowpack in Colorado to shrink significantly. 'To see the decline that we saw at the beginning of March, that is abnormal,' Domonkos said. 'And to see it continue almost unabated, almost to now, that's quite abnormal.' Emergency personnel and tow truck drivers work to clear the scene of a multi-vehicle pileup . A storm brought up to 11 inches of snow on Thursday and Friday to parts of the Colorado mountains and foothills, but much of it fell east of the Continental Divide and will eventually melt into the South Platte and Arkansas rivers. Preliminary readings showed the snowpack on Friday in the South Platte basin was 87 per cent of normal and 79 percent of normal in the Arkansas basin. The U.S. Drought Monitor says 40 per cent of California is in an exceptional drought, the most severe category, and another 25 per cent is in an extreme drought, the second-most severe. A pedestrian moves along a sidewalk while framed by branches covered with snow from a spring storm in Denver . A cows grazes as her calves lay next to her on a farm after a light snow, near Eldorado Springs, Colo., not far from a lagging Colorado River . Gov. Jerry Brown ordered mandatory, statewide water cutbacks by cities and towns, aiming for a 25 percent cut in water use. Extreme drought conditions also spread into Nevada and southern Oregon, along with smaller pockets in Utah and Arizona. Milder drought conditions extend across the rest of the West, except for most of Montana and Wyoming. Other states served by the Colorado River are Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.
target: No serious injuries were reported in the crashes on U.S. Highway 36 between Boulder and Denver, but tow-truck drivers were kept busy hauling away damaged cars .
  In the mountains, Interstate 70 was temporarily closed after several trucks spun out on snowy Vail Pass .
  Meanwhile, lagging Colorado River to keep relief from drought-weary Californians .