Snow drought in the West reaches record levels, threatening water and recreation

Jim Robbins reported in The New York Times on Feb. 1, 2026, that an extreme snow drought and unusually warm winter have left much of the American West with record-low snow cover, threatening water supplies and winter recreation. Places long famed for deep natural snow — including Park City, Utah; Vail, Colorado; and central and eastern Oregon — have much of the ground bare or blanketed with inches rather than feet of snow.

Mt. Bachelor near Bend, Ore., had 109 inches at its base last year at this time and 27 inches this year; the resort closed two of its 12 lifts, and Presley Quon, a Mt. Bachelor spokesperson, said, “We are struggling with the lack of snow.” Salt Lake City airport has recorded only one-tenth of an inch so far this winter, compared with the previous low of 14.3 inches in 1933–34.

Snowpack decline is raising concerns about water resources because mountain snow acts as natural storage that releases runoff slowly in spring and summer. The drop in snowpack in the Colorado Rockies and the Colorado River basin compounds a 26-year megadrought and extremely low levels in the river’s two largest reservoirs.

Snowpack is closely monitored because about 40 million people in seven U.S. states and roughly two million people in Mexico rely on the Colorado River, and researchers estimate about 70 percent of the river’s flow comes from snow.

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