Colorado runoff, ski season hit hard

Colorado’s winter is ending like a faucet turned off too soon. On April 7, the Fort Collins Coloradoan reported that only seven ski areas in the state were still open, after a warm, dry season pushed many resorts to close earlier than usual. (coloradoan.com) That early shutdown is showing up far from the slopes. On April 8, 9News reported that some Front Range cities were already imposing water conservation rules while others were still deciding how hard to clamp down, depending on their supplies, infrastructure, and local demand. (9news.com) Colorado depends on snow the way a savings account depends on deposits. Snow piles up in the mountains through winter, then melts gradually in spring and summer, feeding reservoirs, rivers, lawns, farms, and taps months after the storms are gone. (weather.gov) The key measurement is called snow water equivalent, which means how much liquid water is locked inside the snowpack. A mountain can look white from a distance, but if that snow is thin, patchy, or melting early, the state has less water in storage than it usually would at the same point in the year. (drought.gov) This year, that hidden water bank is badly depleted. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-linked Drought.gov update said Colorado had record-low statewide snowpack as of March 8, and The Denver Post reported statewide snowpack at 26% of the median for early April. (drought.gov, denverpost.com) Drought does not hit every city the same way because cities do not all draw from the same bucket. Some systems have larger reservoirs, different river rights, or backup supplies, which is why one community can tighten rules in March while another waits for a few more weeks of runoff data. (9news.com, drought.gov) Denver moved early. Denver Water said on March 25 that its Board of Water Commissioners declared a Stage 1 drought and adopted mandatory watering limits for its roughly 1.5 million customers because of severe drought conditions and historically low snowpack. (denverwater.org) Aurora followed on April 7 after its city council approved a Stage 1 water shortage declaration. Local coverage said the city is seeking a 20% reduction in use, with immediate restrictions on outdoor watering and reduced allocations for some commercial users such as golf courses. (coloradopolitics.com, denverpost.com) The ski industry is often the first place regular people notice a bad snow year. When resorts close in early April instead of stretching deeper into spring, visitors lose late-season trips, mountain towns lose business, and the state gets a very visible sign that the snowpack never built up the way it normally does. (coloradoan.com, 9news.com) The bigger problem arrives after the lifts stop spinning. Aspen Public Radio reported on April 6 that researchers at Western Colorado University found low-snowpack winters tend to be followed by wildfire seasons that burn more living trees, not just dead wood and brush. (aspenpublicradio.org) That detail changes what summer risk looks like. Fires that kill more living trees can leave forests weaker for longer, add more smoke to the air, and make hiking and camping season feel less like a getaway and more like a gamble on wind, heat, and visibility. (aspenpublicradio.org, coloradosun.com) State officials are treating the situation as more than a bad stretch of weather. The Colorado Water Conservation Board says Governor Jared Polis activated Phase 2 of Colorado’s Drought Response Plan on March 16, 2026, and convened the state’s Drought Task Force as conditions worsened. (cwcb.colorado.gov) So the story in Colorado is not just that ski season ended early. It is that one weak winter is now moving through three different systems at once: city water rules in April, tourism losses in mountain towns right now, and a higher-stakes wildfire season waiting for hikers and campers in the months ahead. (9news.com, coloradoan.com, aspenpublicradio.org)