A record snow drought is plaguing the western US, leaving some of the thirstiest states bracing for less water and elevated fire risks through the drier months to come.<\/p>\n
Snow cover is roughly a third of what it typically is for this time of year across the west, according to measurements from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, prompting widespread concern among experts and water managers that several key basins will be severely affected through the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
Oregon<\/a>, Colorado<\/a> and Utah<\/a> have all reported their lowest statewide snowpack since the early 1980s, as far back as records go.<\/p>\n \u201cThe snowpack is essentially as bad as it\u2019s ever been in recorded history for the time of year in at least some portion of every single western US state,\u201d climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a weather and conditions discussion<\/a> shared to his website last week, calling the record-breaking warmth that preceded it \u201castonishing\u201d.<\/p>\n The dire conditions are fueled by an extremely warm winter, according to federal forecasters, with unseasonable weather breaking records across the region.<\/p>\n \u201cI have not seen a winter like this before,\u201d said Mark Serreze, the director of the the National Snow and Ice Data Center, who has been in Colorado<\/a> almost 40 years. \u201cThis pattern that we\u2019re in is so darned persistent.\u201d<\/p>\n The snowpack is an essential source of water that feeds basins relied on by millions of people, sprawling agricultural centers and ecosystems already under strain. Water content within the snow, an important measurement that offers a sense of how much melt will be available for use, was measured below the median at 91% of weather stations across the west on 1 February.<\/p>\n The strikingly low levels have added pressure to the urgent negotiations under way over the future of the Colorado River<\/a>, the 1,450-mile (2,300km) waterway that snakes through the western US and supplies roughly 40 million people in seven states, 5.5m acres (2.23m hectares) of farmland, dozens of tribes and parts of Mexico.<\/p>\n