Click the link to read the article on the Fence Post website (Amy G. Hadachek):
February 8, 2025
Snowpack has been improving somewhat for Wyoming and northern Colorado — much of that falling in the past week. However, in the southern half of the Intermountain West, there’s a long way to go especially in Arizona and New Mexico, which was explained on the latest Intermountain West Webinar and Drought Outlook on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, hosted by the National Integrated Drought Information System. The Intermountain West is made of five states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Thanks to recent snows, northern Colorado and Wyoming are actually having about 90 percent of median to median snowpack. That means northern Colorado and Wyoming were extremely close to being right on target for normal snowpack, thanks to their winter snowfall, so far…Meanwhile, much of southern Colorado and northern Utah have 70 to 90 percent of median snowpack…Unfortunately, that doesn’t include parts of southwest Colorado and southern Utah, which are showing a smaller snowpack with just 50 to 70 percent of median snowpack. Then, further down the list is a large chunk of Arizona and New Mexico, which have less than 50 percent of median, with much area under 25 percent of median snowpack…
So far, its been a banner winter for many parts of the Intermountain West. The official snow total for Cheyenne, Wyo., as of Feb. 5, 2025 is 16’6″. Here are other snowfall totals from CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network) for the three northern states. “And, I would really stress that these are atypical and solely because of their locations, especially having to do with elevation. Totals in the 20″-50” range are much more the norm throughout the West, Bergantino said. Reports from CoCoRaHS observers are used by the National Weather Service, the National Centers for Environmental Information, engineers, farmers, teachers and many others. Smoot, Wyo., 4.9 SSE (south of Afton) — 127 inches; Crested Butte, Colo., 6.2 N (west central Colorado) — 111.8 inches; Heber City, Utah, 10.1 ESE (southeast of Salt Lake) — 107 inches Interestingly, Colorado snowfall varied almost every month from fall to current. October was mostly near normal for much of the state. November, however, was generally 400 to 600 percent of normal, especially for sites south of Highway 50, while areas to the north were more spotty, with some areas near normal and other areas above.