Colorado’s record‑low snowpack
Colorado just recorded its worst mountain snowpack since statewide record‑keeping began in 1941, a data point that vastly raises the risk of reduced water supplies this summer. (durangoherald.com) That shortfall feeds straight into reservoir forecasts — hydrologists now see a real possibility of record‑low runoff into Lake Powell, which has cascading consequences for irrigation, recreation and river management. (reviewjournal.com)
Colorado’s mountains usually work like a frozen savings account, storing winter water as snow and releasing it slowly in spring. On April 9, Colorado’s statewide snow water equivalent sat far below normal, with many key sites already near zero before mid-April. (wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov) That timing is the shock. A lot of Colorado snowpack normally peaks in early April, but stations in the Gunnison River Basin and nearby basins were already showing bare-ground readings or single-digit percentages of median this week. (wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov) Snowpack is measured as snow water equivalent, which is the amount of liquid water locked inside the snow. A site with 10 inches of snow water equivalent is holding about 10 inches of water that can later run into streams, reservoirs, and irrigation canals. (wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov) Colorado matters because its high country feeds the Colorado River system. The Upper Colorado River Basin snow report on April 9 showed the broader basin also running below normal, which means the shortfall is not just a local ski-season problem but a river-supply problem. (wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov) That shortfall is already showing up downstream at Lake Powell. The Bureau of Reclamation’s March 2026 forecast put water year 2026 unregulated inflow into Lake Powell at 4.95 million acre-feet, or 52 percent of average. (usbr.gov) Reclamation’s February update was even darker in tone. It said the most probable Lake Powell inflow forecast had fallen by 1.5 million acre-feet in one month and by roughly 3.0 million acre-feet since November, which it said is equal to about 50 feet of reservoir elevation. (usbr.gov) Lake Powell is not just a big lake on the Utah-Arizona line. It is the reservoir behind Glen Canyon Dam, and its level helps determine how much water can be released downstream toward Lake Mead under the Colorado River’s operating rules. (usbr.gov) Those rules are already tightening. Reclamation says the projected release from Lake Powell in water year 2026 may be less than 7.48 million acre-feet because current operations now follow changes adopted in the May 9, 2024 Record of Decision for the river system. (usbr.gov) A weak snow year hits long before anyone talks about household taps. Farmers see less runoff for fields, rafting towns see lower and shorter boating flows, and reservoir managers lose room to solve problems because there is less water moving through the system in the first place. (usbr.gov) The uncomfortable part is that April is usually when the West gets its clearest read on summer water. Colorado’s snow pillow network is now showing that the mountains did not bank enough water this winter, and the forecasts for Lake Powell are already being rewritten around that fact. (wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov) (usbr.gov)
