COLORADO, USA — As of Monday, statewide snowpack levels across Colorado sat at about 91% of their season-to-date average levels, a big boost from where those levels were just a month ago.
In early January, statewide snowpack sat at just 68% of average, ranking among some of the lowest early January snowpack levels in recent history.
But a long-lived, mid-January cold snap and simultaneous week-long mountain snowstorm dumped several feet of needed snow on our central and northern mountains, helping to boost statewide snowpack levels closer to average.
More recently, last weekend's Front Range snowstorm brought a healthy amount of snow to the southern mountains, helping put a good dent into some of the deficits in the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo ranges in particular.
Statewide snowpack levels are still below average across the state, but another series of storm systems should bring more snow to the high country.
Winter Storm Warnings are in place for most of our southwestern mountains, where another 1-2 feet of snow between Tuesday and Thursday should further boost snowpack levels there. Another storm will likely sweep through the mountains this weekend as well.
El Niño, the climatological domino effect that stems from warmer-than-average sea-surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean, is helping to supercharge the subtropical jet stream and likely aiding storm development in recent weeks. That general trend appears to continue over the next few weeks, though exact impacts after this week are still uncertain.
Snowpack typically peaks in early April in Colorado. So, there's still time for Colorado to continue chipping away at those snowpack deficits, though a quiet stretch could also reverse some of our recent gains.
In the near term, though, there's at least some reason to be cautiously optimistic about statewide snowpack levels this winter.
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