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Photo Credit: Southern Ute Water Resources Division
Photo Credit: Southern Ute Water Resources Division
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2025 drought and winter snowpack update


The Water Resources Division (WRD) would like to provide the community with a drought and winter snowpack update. Our area (San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan Basin) is currently experiencing moderate drought conditions. Southwest Colorado snowpack is at 80% of the 1991-2020 Median Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1 also shows this winter’s SWE trend (black line) compared to the 1991-2020 median (green line) and the trends for the last two winters (2024 = orange line and 2023 = purple line). Surprisingly, this year’s SWE started off above all three but is now below all three.

However, there is still plenty of winter left for our snowpack to increase. One thing to keep in mind is our local reservoirs are currently doing well, which will help the 2025 irrigation season if snowpack doesn’t significantly improve. Vallecito Reservoir is currently 66% full and Lemon Reservoir is currently 57% full, which are great water levels for this time of year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) outlooks for February-April show Southwest Colorado drought conditions persisting with below average precipitation and above average temperatures. However, take these forecasts with a grain of salt. Last year’s NOAA drought, temperature, and precipitation forecasts were significantly inaccurate. The ENSO Neutral conditions (Figure 2) do seem to be increasing each month, so hopefully snowpack conditions and weather patterns will change soon.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Water Resources Division at 970-563-9482.

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