2026 Snowpack thread

[alloydnix]

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/sswsf-snow-survey-and-water-supply-forecasting-program/snowpack-and

wow, kind of depressing to look at. Not sure it’s all been updated after the storms lately but I doubt what we just got in flagstaff would change much.

 

[Weldor]

We got a couple of inches the last couple of days, looks like the rim got a little more. Going to be in the mid 60's next week. Pretty muddy right now. It would be great if we could get a storm like this once a week for awhile.

 

[Jimmy]

we were behind in the Sierras, but just got 6+ feet in this last storm. Really wet storm too, trees and power lines down everywhere. Lots of Priuses sunk into snowbanks.

 

[MuleyFever]

This was end of day yesterday. We will see what the storm last night took us to when they update it. Got about 2' on top of the mountain here in the southwestern area last night.

 

[Tilzbow]

we were behind in the Sierras, but just got 6+ feet in this last storm. Really wet storm too, trees and power lines down everywhere. Lots of Priuses sunk into snowbanks.

111” near Soda Springs and that’s only at 6,894. The higher elevations must’ve got hammered, not that 111” isn’t “hammered “….

 

[AK Troutbum]

I think we’re sitting at right around 6’ total year to date, which is about normal. March tends to be our big snow month so we’ll see how that goes. I just got down to the cabin last night and had to snowshoe in, but it looks to be pretty normal down here as well, for this time of year.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Forester1996]

In my area in Washington, our basin conditions overall are pretty sad but at certain stations the snowpack is doing pretty well. We got a few inches in the foothills the last few days. I think we will get more in the coming weeks and into march. At the moment, I'm not too worried about snowpack.

 

[Tilzbow]

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

Here’s a helpful link to monitor precipitation conditions.

 

[MuleyFever]

We got a good storm but didn't hardly change anything

 

[Serrano]

One really big storm didn't end the drought, but it did make a big difference. If you look at how much SWE (water) each basin added. It is a lot of water. But we need 3 or 4 more like it to get back to even.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

I keep hearing "Yeah March is the snowiest month I will panic then". Even if it snows decent in March, you still need RECORD snowfall to achieve the median SWE peak come April. A 50% EP puts us at 72% of median SWE.

We also need to remember we had a dry/warm 2025 precipitation wise and we will be losing a lot of moisture to ground loss. This all ties into the water supply forecasts below. NRCS is forecasting a bit over half the normal streamflows in the Colorado Headwaters.

Anybody running an irrigation canal or augmentation pond for their property will have an extremely short window of operation. Where a typical season may allow 3-4 months of intake, may dwindle down to less than 2 months. Some ranchers may not even get to open their gates and have to rely on wells. Look at the forecasted Colorado flows at Dotsero and Cameo which are huge water calls that control most of the west slope. People should be contacting their water rights admin and making a plan.

There were similar years to this one in the past (2002 and a couple others). The oldheads here may be able to remember those hunts.

What's my take on this?
1. Sheds will be higher as animals are not in the traditional winter range. The deer and elk are starting to drop right now and hanging out on west/south slopes at 10k feet.
2. Limited irrigation on ranches and lack of running water/ponds that animals typically flock to will keep them off the property. Private land hunts may play out very different this year. A caveat to this is that animals may be more prominent on public near natural water sources.
3. Good quality animals going into the fall due to lack of winter kill and good winter/spring feed.