Recent Storms Massively Improve Northern Colorado Snowpack | Southern Colorado Still Hurting

Thanks to this weekend’s storm, which dumped up to 3-feet of snow over 72 hours on some mountains, the snowpack has finally improved in the north-central Colorado mountains.

Although a case of ‘too little too late’ for the ski resorts, it is great news for the rivers, lakes, and reservoirs and for reducing the wildfire risk throughout the summer.

Basin snowpack climbed from 80%, 83% and 95% of normal on April 1st in upper Colorado, South Platte, and North Platte River Basins, respectively, to 86%, 92% and 100% of normal today. As of today, Colorado as a whole is at 72 percent of average. April 9th is the peak of the snowfall and Colorado is still 28 percent behind the average, so unless a big system hits in the next few weeks, it is most likely all downhill from here.

Unfortunately, it’s not been the greatest ski season in the San Juan mountain range, the south of the state is still hurting and the snowpack remains well below normal.  

Current Colorado reservoir storage is at 114 percent of average, meaning that there is enough water supply heading into the growing season even though the snowpack is behind. Hopefully, mother nature will help out in the coming weeks in order to keep reservoir levels high enough heading into summer.

Over the next ten days, the mountains have a good chance to see a couple more rounds of snow. One system moves in on Friday and Saturday and another next Tuesday. They do not look as significant as what was seen over the weekend, but at this point, Colorado will take what it can get.