This year’s devastating snow drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin was made 14 times more likely by years of global climate change, according to a new study by Colorado School of Mines researchers, who are increasingly linking short-term weather disasters to decades of warming. … Warmer temperatures in the West have also intensified the impacts of the worst drought winters such as 2025-26, according to the research published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” The currentsnowpack drought, coming amid climate change, robbed 25% more moisture from snowpack than a similar-scale drought occurring before the Industrial Age advent of heavy fossil fuel use and global warming. 

Other climate science news:

• Inside Climate News: Global warming unmakes winter in the US West
• The Denver Post: Last winter’s extreme snow drought was a sign of the West’s future, Colorado study finds
• SciTech Daily: Scientists discover an alarming trend climate models are missing