I' m with you on Colorado water. 2door, but as an expatriot Coloradan,
I'd blame for the changes in east/west slope climate & water tables on
the influx of flatlanders & the politicians who sold a huge percentage of
Colorado runoff to Disneyland of all places in the 50s. That has since been
parcelled off piecemeal to a number of interests. The 'Pan/Ark' project
effectively drained the primary snow fields to water the lawns in Denver.
Over the years this completely altered western slope climate and with it
creating the sort of drought conditions that hit the southwest between
800 & 1100 A.D.
If this thing last as long as that, Phoenix & L.A. will be ghost towns just
like Chaco Canyon.
As for the fires, They're a symptom of a depleted water table. The evaporation
from a healthy water table is what cooled the mountains and attracted snowfall.
without that the winters were warmer allowing more pine beetle larva to survive.