CIRCLE WITH A DOT

This Year's Snow Drought is Etching Itself Into Utah Forest HistoryWithout a winter snowpack to convert into spring runoff, trees will shift into very low gear, growing little and leaving narrow bands in their tree-ring records. In really bad years there is no growth, and no ring, at all.#tree #drought #Utah #SnowDrought https://www.usu.edu/today/story/this-years-snow-drought-is-etching-itself-into-utah-forest-history

In the West, snow drought is pushing cross-country ski areas closer to a breaking pointDirt is a common and unwanted sight at ski areas across the region this year. Due to high temperatures and low precipitation, snow coverage across the Western U.S. likely peaked in February at around 38% of average, according to a recent analysis by the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. The percentage marks a record low since satellites started measuring snow coverage 26 years ago.#SnowDrought #drought #SkiResort #snow https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2026-03-13/in-the-west-snow-drought-is-pushing-cross-country-ski-areas-closer-to-a-breaking-point

Too much snow or hoping for more? Two different winters hit the USSo far this season, millions in the Northeast have endured rounds of frigid temperatures and mounds of snow. But a different winter has played out across much of the West. High temperatures and a lack of snow have been feeding a drought there, impacting ski resorts and fueling water shortage concerns.#snow #drought #SnowDrought https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2026/03/11/us-drought-snow-winter-2026/89069485007/

Colorado River may deliver just a third of normal water supplies this spring, projections showModeling released late last week showed the river system on track to deliver a scant 2.3 million acre-feet to Lake Powell, one of the river system’s largest reservoirs. That’s 36% of the median of 6.4 million acre-feet recorded between 1991 and 2020. If the forecast comes true, it would be the fifth-lowest inflow to Lake Powell since the reservoir’s establishment in 1963, according to the National Weather Service’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.#ColoradoRiver #drought #SnowDrought #water https://www.denverpost.com/2026/03/09/colorado-river-drought-forecast-lake-powell/