From the water you drink to the food we grow, there is a growing need for this precious resource. Mother Nature is one of the top providers for our water supply through Colorado's snow pack. Every year the snow melt from the mountains runs off into different basins throughout the state, and provides water for 19 different states and Mexico.
Our current snow pack is already 23% above average for the entire state. Southern Colorado usually gets their water from the Arkansas River Basin and they are at 169%. When we are at 100% that means we are right at average.
If you were to take a cup of snow and melt it down it would look like there's a lot less water. Usually if you get 10 inches of snow this would be the equivalent of 1 inch of water, but this is all dependent on how much moisture is in the atmosphere. Let's say the forecast calls for 3.2 inches of snow. If we were to melt that snow to see how much water there was we would have 0.32 inches of water. This is again assuming a 10:1 ratio.
The deepest snow levels are across our higher peaks and out towards the Continental Divide. Telluride, Vail, Aspen, and Steamboat are on the leader board for deepest snow levels right now.
Looking back at the past 10 years, we ranges from 16.3 inches of snow in 2015 to 26.1 inches in 2019. There has been a warming trend over the past 50 years, and this has caused these averages to go down slightly. This means that the state snow pack averages were higher 50 years ago compared to today.
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