Colorado’s snowpack is hugging record lows or crawling past them in some areas thanks to a series of storms that dropped snow on the state since Feb. 11.
As much as 50 inches of snow fell on some parts of the state. That’s good news for Colorado industries, like ski resorts that have been forced to keep some runs closed or rely on machine-made snow for much of this season.
But the state’s snowpack is still only 63% of the 30-year norm for this point in the season and the worst since 1987.
“Getting these late-season storms is going to help,” said Brianna Bealo, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. “But there’s only so much we can do this late in the season. We probably won’t get anywhere close to median.”
The snow that gathers in Colorado’s mountains during the winter becomes a vital source of drinking water for downstream communities, both within and beyond state lines, once it begins to melt in April and May. It supports farms, ranches and hydropower production. It’s also pumped into snowmaking machines and comes out as a vital source of artificial snow for ski towns and local economies.
In southwestern Colorado, Purgatory Resort saw over 3 feet of snow in the past from Feb. 17 to 20. Now, the ski area has 94% of its terrain open, James Graven, a spokesperson for the resort, said.
For weeks, resort visitors have skied past grass poking above the snow’s surface or skidded over icy patches on the trails.
As of last weekend, it was “soft, powdery and fun,” Durango resident Halie Forsthoff said.
“Although I will say the line on Saturday was the craziest and longest line I’ve ever waited in except for maybe during COVID,” she said.
Vail Resorts’ locations in Eagle County received about 22 inches of snow and about 12 inches at resorts in Summit County, according to John Plack, senior director of communications for Vail Resorts, which owns over 40 ski resorts in Colorado and worldwide.
“The company has invested a lot of money in snowmaking, and that’s what got us open and moving (in the) early season,” he said.
Plack declined to share visitation or revenue numbers tied to the recent storms. The storms were welcome news for the resorts and skiers alike, he said.
“We’re in the snow business. When it snows, we love to see it,” Plack said. “Our guests love to see it. It helps us open more terrain and maintain the quality of the terrain that we have.”
Record lows stick around for Colorado River
In Grand Junction, Bealo spent part of her day tracking weather balloon data.
The hydrogen-filled balloons float into the atmosphere bearing a 100-foot-long train with equipment that measures temperature, humidity and more into the air, according to the National Weather Service.
Eventually they pop, a parachute bearing the equipment falls to the ground, the atmospheric data is transmitted and meteorologists like Bealo make sure the data is sent off to the National Weather Service’s data center.
Even as she gathered data from the sky, the ground-level view was already drying out, said Bealo, who tracks weather reports for the Western Slope.
“For the most part, the snow we got over the past weekend is gone,” she said.
Since Feb. 11, the Grand Mesa saw anywhere from 20 to 50 inches of snow accumulate. Once that melts, it will roughly equal between 1.5 and 4 inches of water, also called the snow-water equivalent.
About 2 to 4 inches of snow accumulated in the lower elevations over the weekend. In the Grand Valley, where agriculture is an economic driver, about half an inch to almost 4 inches of fresh snow fell during the storms, she said.
In southwestern Colorado, the snow storms helped bring watersheds out of extreme lows and into more moderate lows. Other areas — like northwestern Colorado and the Colorado River’s headwaters — are still at record lows, according to federal data.
(Screenshot, Natural Resources Conservation Service)The Colorado River’s headwaters region, which extends from around Grand Lake to Grand Junction and the Utah-Colorado border, is experiencing its worst snowpack since 1986.
At this point in the season, Colorado is fighting the sun, too. By the end of February, the sun’s position is high enough in the sky to melt snow, making it hard for snow on south-facing slopes to stick around, she said.
“We’re potentially going to struggle going out of snowpack season unless we see a better monsoon this year,” Bealo said.
Good, not great snow for eastern Colorado
In Pueblo, the view outside of meteorologist Michael Garberoglio’s office was mostly sunny. He was expecting a balmy afternoon with temperatures in the 60s after a brisk morning, he said.
The National Weather Service’s Pueblo office tracks conditions in south-central and southeastern Colorado, from the Continental Divide and the San Juan Mountains down to Colorado Springs and Springfield.
The recent storms helped the mountains in the region more than the plains. The mountains in the Upper Rio Grande River Basin are now just above the historic minimum, but not by much. A few high-elevation sites gained about 17 to 30 inches of snow.
“Which really isn’t terrible snow depth for this time of year. We just haven’t gotten nearly enough moisture,” Garberoglio said. “We needed, really, just more storms than we got, honestly.”
Between Thursday and Friday, Pagosa Springs got about 8 inches of snow. The Arkansas River Basin, which covers much of the Pueblo office’s service area, received enough snow between Feb. 13 and 23 to equal about an inch of water. The basin’s snowpack is still the lowest since 1992, according to federal data.
It was warm and breezy Monday at the weather service’s Boulder office following the mid-February snow storms, said meteorologist Russell Danielson.
“Last week we did well,” he said.
The Estes Park area received about 3.7 inches of snow, or about 0.28 inches of water, which is good — not great, Danielson said.
More broadly, the South Platte River Basin, an important water source for Front Range residents, got enough snow between Feb. 11 and 23 to equal about an inch of water, bringing the total water held in its snowpack up to 6.1 inches.
The previous low for Feb. 23 was 5.6 inches of water in 1981. The normal is 10.2 inches, Danielson said.
“It’s good to have these normal events, but we need above-normal events to start catching up on the snowpack,” he said.
More snow in the forecast
In Pueblo, Garberoglio looked at forecasts showing warm and dry conditions this week with some light moisture. There’s the potential for some good snow next week, he said.
“That’s kind of our next optimistic shot for some good mountain snowfall,” he said.
The north-central and northeastern regions of Colorado are in for some snow this week, Danielson said in Boulder. The highest totals will be in the Park Range north of Steamboat Springs, where about 7 inches to 20 inches of powdery snow will accumulate.
With the warm temperatures between storms, the base of ski areas will probably still be a little slushy, he said.
This week’s storms will also drop snow on parts of the Western Slope, mainly between Tuesday and Thursday, Bealo said, though the southern areas of the state should not expect much from it.
The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for the Park Range through Wednesday night, and some additional advisories may follow, she added.
But Bealo also noted the weeklong cycle has made a difference.
“The problem is that we’ve gone so long without any accumulations that we would need probably back to back to back to back record-setting storms to get us anywhere close to median before the end of our snowpack accumulation season,” she said.
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