{"id":301563,"date":"2026-02-20T19:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/301563\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:39:09","slug":"snow-drought-is-worsening-wildfire-risk-and-water-storage-concerns-in-colorado-according-to-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/301563\/","title":{"rendered":"Snow drought is worsening wildfire risk and water storage concerns in Colorado, according to experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"The top of the Hero’s chairlift is seen on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, on Aspen Mountain.
Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s record-low snowpack is already raising concerns about increased wildfire risk and water shortages this summer, even as the mountains are still in the depths of winter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Statewide, the snowpack levels are just 61% of median for this time of year, and it would take consistent, record-breaking snowfall for the rest of the season to reach normal peak snowpack levels, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really should be bracing for an unusually early and potentially severe fire season,\u201d Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control public information officer Tracy LeClair said. \u201cSome of the conditions are worse than we saw in the big years, like 2012 and 2020, where we saw some of the largest fires and some of the most destructive fires in Colorado history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those historic fire seasons were preceded by winters with well-below-average snowpacks, LeClair said. But this winter season, the snowpack is the worst Colorado has seen in decades. For weeks, the state\u2019s snow telemetry network<\/a>, which dates back to about 1987, has ranked the snowpack as the worst on record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor, parts of Summit, Eagle, Pitkin, Lake and Park counties were experiencing exceptional drought \u2014 the most intense level of drought. Meanwhile, most of northwest Colorado is under extreme drought or severe drought status.<\/p>\n

The snow drought that has persisted through the season has shifted the fire risk \u201cinto the late winter months,\u201d LeClair said. She noted that lack of snow has also led fire agencies across the state to delay or cancel prescribed burn projects, like pile burns, which require snow on the ground to burn safely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe snowpack acts as a critical natural reservoir for moisture that we really need to accumulate throughout the winter and then melt slowly in the spring,\u201d LeClair said. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to see the snowpack melt off a lot sooner and potentially a lot faster because we\u2019ve had extended warmer weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

With skier visitation down, Colorado\u2019s mountain economies have suffered<\/a> \u2014 and the lack of snow could upset summer tourism as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"A three-month outlook shows below-average chances for precipitation in Colorado. The state is experiencing some of the lowest snowpack levels in decades that are raising concerns about wildfire risk and reservoir storage.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\/Courtesy illustration<\/p>\n

Already, Frisco has decided to close its boat ramp for the 2026 season, due to \u201cextreme drought conditions\u201d and guidance from Denver Water suggesting that the Dillon Reservoir won\u2019t fill with enough water to reach the docks. The loss of offering dock slips will reduce the town\u2019s revenue by more than $300,000.<\/p>\n

Nathan Elder, Denver Water\u2019s manager of water supply, said the patchy snow that Coloradans have been skiing on all winter is all there is to melt into the state\u2019s reservoirs this summer. As of Feb. 1, the inflow forecast for the Dillon Reservoir was just 55% of normal, so only about half of the normal amount of water is expected to flow into the reservoir this run-off season, Elder said. He noted that half of the Denver Metro area\u2019s water supply comes from the Colorado Headwaters Basin and high elevation areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSnowpack right now, it\u2019s highly concerning,\u201d Elder said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re really preparing for a drought this year. We\u2019re preparing to implement some level of water-use restrictions and send out lots of communication encouraging customers to conserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Statewide reservoir storage is about 86% of median, compared to 94% of median this time last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Colorado Water Supply Outlook for February. The report states, \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not ideal to have low reservoir storage during these dry years.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the low snowpack, there is not much water right now to melt into those reservoirs come spring. The Laramie-North Platte and Colorado Headwaters river basins, which encompass much of northwest Colorado, have some of the lowest streamflow forecasts in the state, at 50% of 58% of normal, according to the water supply outlook.<\/p>\n

\"\"A U.S. Drought Monitor map published Feb. 17, 2026, shows extreme and exceptional drought conditions spreading across Summit, Eagle, Pitkin and other mountain counties. U.S. Drought Monitor\/Courtesy illustration)<\/p>\n

Colorado Snow Survey Supervisor Brian Domonkos said that while the snowpack is low, he is hopeful that the recent shift to more wintry weather will continue with wetter conditions through the spring.<\/p>\n

While it is very unlikely Colorado will be able to get back to normal snowpack levels, Domonkos said there\u2019s \u201ca fair amount of winter to go,\u201d so it is possible that the state could make up some of its snow deficits in the next couple months.<\/p>\n

At least right now, forecasts don\u2019t match his optimism. The National Weather Service\u2019s latest one-month outlook predicts slightly below-average precipitation across Colorado, and the three-month outlook looks even worse for the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because the snowpack isn\u2019t good, doesn\u2019t always mean that the runoff won\u2019t be OK,\u201d Domonkos said. \u201cWe can have rain in the spring or even rain in the summer that can really boost runoff. Does it happen a lot? No. Can it happen? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The top of the Hero’s chairlift is seen on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026, on Aspen Mountain.Austin Colbert\/The Aspen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-301563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}