Our statewide snowpack is sitting at 85% this week, and this is not a big change from last week's percentages. Last week, we were at 86% with our snowpack, so we are holding steady. It's a different story for our southern river basins, where they haven't seen numbers this low since 2018.
There is a clear difference between our northern and southern river basins this year. This is partially due to the La Nina conditions we saw in February and March. This brought well above average temperatures and below average amounts of precipitation. The northern basins didn't struggle as much and remained consistent throughout the season.
We hit our peak snowpack pretty early on this year, and we are noticing a downward trend in our snowpack levels. The Climate Prediction Center has Colorado likely seeing below average amounts of precipitation over the next three months. The highest chances for this are over our mountains, so it's not looking likely that we will have another major snowstorm.
This is concerning for us here in southern Colorado because without this needed moisture, the wildfire risk will increase. With not as much snowmelt this year, that soil will be a little drier.
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