Skiers, snowboarders and Coloradans can collectively rejoice: snowpack levels are in good shape statewide at the start of the new year.
As of Thursday’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) update, Colorado’s statewide snowpack was sitting at 123 percent of average. That’s about 30 percent higher than snowpack levels were in the first few days of 2019, and an overall indication that this winter’s snowfall so far has been healthy for Colorado’s mountains.
Perhaps most importantly, unlike a year ago, Colorado’s snowpack levels are evenly spread throughout the state. None of Colorado’s eight primary mountain regions (identified by river basins) had less than 114 percent of average snowpack, meaning each of the state’s individual regions are running above average.
Last year, Colorado’s northern mountains started with considerably higher snowpack levels than the southern ones. That gap eventually narrowed, but not until a series of big late winter and spring snows.
Colorado snowpack so far this season has been consistently running above season-to-date averages, buoyed by a series of big, early season snowstorms. Initially, the heaviest snow was concentrated more into the state’s northern mountains, but recent snows have been more oriented toward southern Colorado. That’s evenly boosted statewide snowpack levels so far this winter.
While early January might come across as the middle of winter, Colorado’s snowpack usually builds until late March or early April, due to the typical prevalence of big late winter or early spring snowstorms.
More light mountain snowfall could be in the offing early next week, mainly for the northern mountains. A few inches are expected to fall across the northern Park, Medicine Bow, Gore and Front Ranges on Sunday and Monday.
