30-04-2025
Some of Colorado's mountains have no snowpack left after below-average winter
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (KDVR) — The latest data shows Colorado has just 59% of the median snowpack it has seen over the last three decades.
'This winter has not been a good one in terms of snowpack,' state climatologist Russ Schumacher said.
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The southwestern corner of the state is suffering the worst. According to the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service, Cortez and the Four Corners have zero moisture left to melt.
'It got off to a really fast start in November. There are places that were at or near record highs in early November with the huge snowstorm that happened and then barely got any more snow the rest of the winter. And now melting out early because it's been so sunny and warm over the last few weeks,' Schumacher said.
Schumacher says it will lead to low flows in the rivers during the spring runoff.
'We're kind of getting into the conversation of some of those really bad drought years in the past,' he said.
The U.S. drought monitor predicts about three-quarters of Colorado will be experiencing drought conditions by the end of July.
According to Schumacher, Coloradans may face water restrictions, reduced output from the agricultural industry and an increased risk of wildfire.
'If you have rainfall in the summer that's timed well, that can really prevent the wildfire situation from getting really bad even if it's otherwise a dry year. But those years where the snowpack is low and we have long lasting drought, those tend to be the years that have a lot of fire,' Schumacher said.
He points to similar snowpack conditions in 2018. In June of that year the 416 Fire burned 55,000 acres in Durango and the Spring Creek Fire scorched another 108,000 acres near La Veta in July.
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However, there is still some time for mother nature to turn things around.
'We'll have a storm coming into the mountains tomorrow. There may be a bigger storm next week so there's still a chance for things to recover up here in the northern part of the state,' Schumacher said.
Inching closer May and June though, he said spring storms may not be enough to fix the precipitation problems in southern Colorado.
'The reservoirs that we have in Colorado do help to provide a savings account for a dry year. So usually one dry year is possible to get through because there's water stored up in the reservoirs,' Schumacher said. 'Some of the places in southern Colorado that had poor snowpack last year as well, their reservoirs didn't fill up that much last summer. That's where the bigger concerns are.'
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