With little snow in the forecast, California’s meager snowpack — at just 59% of normal for this time of year — could be in dire trouble. And that’s a big deal for winter sports enthusiasts who want to bag peaks or hit the slopes in Lake Tahoe this winter. This winter hasn’t been a dry one, but it has been a tale of warm storms bringing rain, a few big cold winter systems dropping multiple feet of snow and then warm temperatures prematurely melting some of the cold white layer blanketing the Sierra Nevada. “The full three-month period, winter 2026, was in fact record warm throughout a majority of the Sierra Nevada,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:

• KOAA (Colorado Springs, Colo.): Colorado snowpack returns to record low levels, Arkansas Basin in worst shape
• The Modesto Bee (Calif.): Snowpack is at just 63%, but water district plans full deliveries. Here’s why
• Chico Enterprise-Record (Calif.): DWR continues water releases from Oroville Dam
• Writers on the Range: Blog: A Colorado town waits for a water crisis
• The Denver Post: Opinion: Durango has water storage for only a few weeks, now it braces for historically low snowpack