Colorado snowpack update: Front Range mountain snowpack suffering as southern mountains still benefiting

Colorado’s first snows of the water year have built up the state’s snowpack unevenly, with the southern mountain basins still out weighing the northern mountain basin.

With ratios of at least 2:1 in the Arkansas River basin and nearly 7:1 in the Rio Grande basin, the southern mountains could donate half their snow to the northern mountains and still have plenty to spare.

As of Oct. 30, the northern ranges, including the Front Range outside Denver and Fort Collins, are mostly bare.

On the flip side, the southern mountains are caked in snow.

Some snow compaction has occurred during the lull in storm activity from Oct. 25-29, but some snow melting has occurred as well, mostly at the snow line around 10,500 feet.

It is still early in the water year season so percent-of-median figures are inflated because the medians for this time of year are tiny. A few inches of snow can look like a big number.

Statewide Snow Water Equivalent snapshot:

• Current as of: Oct. 30, 2026
• Percent of median: 104%
• Percent of median peak: 4%
• Days until median peak: about 161 days (April 8)
• Percentile: about the 38th, meaning 12 of the 35 years from 1991 to 2025 had less snow statewide on this date

These figures cover the 105 of 118 SNOTEL sites that had both a current reading and a median on today’s date.

Snow water equivalent by river basin:

• Colorado (Upper Colorado): 26 sites are at about 53% of median, with an average of 0.4 inches of snow water equivalent per site.
• Gunnison: 10 sites are at about 201% of median, averaging 1.0 inch per site.
• San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan: 17 sites are at about 331% of median, averaging 1.2 inches per site.
• Yampa-White: 9 sites are at about 50% of median, averaging 0.1 inch per site, the lowest percentage of any basin in this calculation.
• South Platte: 19 sites are at about 32% of median, averaging 0.3 inches per site.
• North Platte: 5 sites are at about 41% of median, averaging 0.8 inches per site.
• Arkansas: 6 sites are at about 131% of median, averaging 0.7 inches per site.
• Rio Grande: 13 sites are at about 368% of median, averaging 1.5 inches per site, the highest percentage and the highest average in this calculation.

Sites with the most snow:

Site	Basin	Elevation (ft)	SWE (in)	Median (in)	7-day change (in)
Beartown	Rio Grande	11,580	7.5	0.8	+2.5
Middle Creek	Rio Grande	11,260	5.0	0.9	+1.8
Slumgullion	Gunnison	11,560	4.2	1.3	+1.5
Wolf Creek Summit	San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan	10,930	4.0	1.9	+2.4
Red Mountain Pass	San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan	11,060	4.0	1.0	+1.2

Holding strong, even with some compaction and melting occurring, were sites in the southern mountains.

The biggest 7-day gains were at Beartown (+2.5 inches), Wolf Creek Summit (+2.4), and Middle Creek and Stump Lakes (+1.8 each). No site showed a large 24-hour jump; the biggest was Columbine Pass in the Gunnison basin, up 0.9 inch.

Snow water equivalent levels, when compared to the same date in 2025, show that one year ago, the site was recording 0 inches of snow water equivalent. Snow had fallen prior to the Oct. 27, 2025 at the site, however, had mostly to completely melted away by month’s end.

What El Niño means for Colorado this winter and spring

In its ENSO diagnostic discussion issued Oct. 8, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said an El Niño Advisory is in effect and that “El Niño continues to strengthen, with a strong-to-very strong El Niño likely through January-March 2027.” The agency’s next update is scheduled for Nov. 12.

In short, El Niño tilts the odds but does not decide the outcome, and conditions in Colorado vary a lot from year to year.

Rocky Mountain Journal’s Colorado snowpack updates are written out for Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the fall, winter and spring seasons.

Some data for this report was compiled with the assistance of AI, then reviewed by the editor.