2022 drought conditions

We are just South of the red section in Colorado, and we didn't receive a drop of moisture East of the foothills in April. That and lots of wind has really dried things out. But in general, that is a fairly dry section of Wy.
 
Mike, your comment reminded me of a time I backpacked onto the northern section of the San Rafael Reef and when I camped for the night, didn't worry about filling up my water bottles, as there were lots of full potholes all around me. When I got up the next morning, everything was bone dry from the all-night winds.
 
Newer map ....drought.jpg
 
1652203946937.png

Some great late season storms have been moving through the Northwest and have really bolstered the snowpack. Probably doesn't fully make up for the poor winter we had, but it's nice to see that even here in the Gallatin drainage, we're at 100% of normal snowpack. Still not looking great for most places south of Idaho though.
 
meanwhile, here at home, La Nina is responsible for more than a normal snowpack.

280497805_10159212779268547_8190113359153525825_n-XL.jpg
 
I drove past Boulder Mountain the other day, incredible to see an almost complete lack of snow on north-facing slopes above 11,000'
Me too. It was quite disheartening. Not only was there no snow but it already looked dry.
 
1654014025991.png

This very wet middle/end of spring has really boosted snowpack for a lot of places.

I know that average snowpack is a low value toward the end of the season, so any snowfall will drastically change the current value for percent of normal, but still. Nice to see a lot of dark blue on there. And even the NV, UT, and CO numbers got a bump.
 
I know that average snowpack is a low value toward the end of the season, so any snowfall will drastically change the current value for percent of normal, but still. Nice to see a lot of dark blue on there. And even the NV, UT, and CO numbers got a bump.

My place north of Bozeman pretty much lives on mid elevation snowpack that would normally be gone by now but there really wasn't much anything to start with. Stream flows were dismal going into April. May, on the other hand, has been the most wet I ever recall with a 6.61" tally. Steam flows are back to what you would expect. I hope it keeps coming for another month and it at least puts smoke season back where it belongs.
 
Does snow water equivalent count all precipitation, or only snow that sticks and adds to the snowpack? Dumb question from down South.
 
Does snow water equivalent count all precipitation, or only snow that sticks and adds to the snowpack? Dumb question from down South.
Basically - if you took a section of the current snowpack and melted it all down, how many inches of water would it it produce?

So SWE isn't the total amount of precip, it's just the current amount of water that's locked in the current snowpack, awaiting the melt.
 
Gosh, this is Absolutely Awesome! Hope this holds off the fires for this summer. Interesting the northern country has been inundated with moisture, but the southwest is just so dry.
 
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