Where is the Snow?
To put it plainly, it's been a "bad" season for snow in the U.S. Rockies. I've been visiting the slopes of Colorado annually for over four decades, throw in a couple of odd trips to Utah, and this was one of the worst seasons I can remember. Turns out, the seasonal snowpack levels across Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico are not only below average, but many of the ski resorts are at or near record lows. On a positive note, the lift lines were super mellow, even on weekends and holiday breaks.
The Rockies were just never buried in the depths of winter. It was like a curse of an everlasting early season, with fall-like conditions perpetuating through the peak winter months and spring. Bare patches of dirt and rock plagued the ski runs throughout the season. Many runs were even closed, some all season. And now, the little snow that does skim the mountains is steadily melting away, returning to the water cycle, with the hope it may reappear more generously next season.
So, what went wrong?
In short, high pressure is primarily to blame. For the past several months, this anti-cyclonic system of diverging air regularly found itself hanging over the Rocky Mountains. Many times setting up what we weather nerds refer to as an Omega Block. This is when the high parked over the Rockies for an extended period of time. Meanwhile, incoming winter storms (cyclones) moving in from the Pacific were directed up into Canada, then often down into the eastern seaboard of the US (see image below).
So, what does it mean for the Rockies, to have high pressure dominate the region?
- Diversion of storms - Acting like a traffic cop, the high will direct incoming winter storms up and around it. As a result, the Rockies had fewer storms this season, a lot fewer for most of the region.
- Warmer temps - Snow requires not only cold conditions to form, freezing to be exact, but sustained cold to remain. Notably, November and December ranked among the warmest in over a century of records.
- Drier air - With less atmospheric moisture available, the likelihood of precipitation—and therefore snow—was further diminished.
Was La Niña a contributing factor? Possibly. While this year’s La Niña was relatively weak, it often correlates with a more northerly storm track. That likely played a role to a degree, though this season also appears to be an outlier—an unusual convergence of atmospheric conditions that simply did not favor the Rockies.
Looking ahead, there is cautious optimism. Climate model projections suggest a transition toward El Niño by next winter, a pattern that has historically brought more favorable snowfall to the region. Fingers crossed!