Right now, high mountain snow is melting fast. You can see it starting to overflow rivers all over Idaho, including the Boise and Snake River.

That water is filling streams and reservoirs that are part of the Colorado River system, a lifeline for tens of millions of people in the west. But some of that snow is disappearing before it melts.

KUNC's Alex Hager visited a team of researchers and filed this report for the Mountain West News Bureau.