Colorado snowpack update: Colorado, Arkansas basins filling in some after mid-week snow

Two of Colorado’s river basins received some much need snow from a mid-week, fast moving storm that left between 6-12″ of snow in several locations in the central and west-central mountains.

The Colorado River basin jumped from 66% to 77% of median while the Arkansas River basin jumped from 89% to 147% from the storm.

In particular, places along the Sawatch divide from Leadville south to Monarch Pass received a healthy dose of snow, boosting the snowpack nearly 2x.

The southern mountains still have the majority of the state’s snowpack, however, outside the Front Range Mountains, Colorado is slowly filling in west of the Continental Divide to the Utah border, and from the Wyoming state line to the New Mexico state line.

Statewide Snow Water Equivalent snapshot:

• Current as of: Nov. 5 (105 SNOTEL sites reporting)
• Percent of median: 117%
• Percent of median peak: 8%
• Days until median peak: about 155 days
• Percentile: about 50th, compared with the same date in 1991 through 2020

Snow water equivalent by river basin:

• Rio Grande: 13 sites are at 266% of median, with typical snow water equivalent of 2.2 inches per site. This is the highest percent of median among the eight basin groups.
• San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan: 17 sites are at 307% of median, averaging 2.7 inches per site, the most snow water per site of any basin group.
• Gunnison: 10 sites are at 194% of median, averaging 1.9 inches per site.
• Arkansas: 6 sites are at 147% of median, averaging 1.5 inches per site.
• Colorado: 26 sites are at 77% of median, averaging 1.0 inch per site.
• North Platte: 5 sites are at 38% of median, averaging 1.0 inch per site.
• South Platte: 19 sites are at 35% of median, averaging 0.5 inches per site.
• Yampa-White: 9 sites are at 45% of median, averaging 0.5 inches per site, the lowest percent of median among the basin groups.

The northern most river basins are still lagging severely behind the southern and western river basins in the state. Both Platte river basins are below 40% of median and the northwestern most basin around Steamboat is below 50% of median.

This set up speaks close to a typical El Niño weather pattern, where northern Colorado receives less precipitation while southern Colorado receives more precipitation during the weather phenomenon.

Sites with the most snow:

Site	Basin	Elevation (ft)	SWE (in)	Median (in)	7-day change (in)
Beartown	Rio Grande	11,580	11.5	1.6	+4.0
Wolf Creek Summit	San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan	10,930	7.5	3.8	+3.5
Middle Creek	Rio Grande	11,260	7.3	2.2	+2.3
Red Mountain Pass	San Miguel-Dolores-Animas-San Juan	11,060	7.1	2.3	+3.1
Slumgullion	Gunnison	11,560	6.0	1.7	+1.8

Over the last seven days, the biggest gains were at Beartown (+4.0 inches), Wolf Creek Summit (+3.5), Red Mountain Pass (+3.1), Sharkstooth (+2.7) and Schofield Pass (+2.5).

No site gained more than 0.6 inches of SWE in the last 24 hours.

Vastly different change from one year ago:

Colorado’s snowpack on Nov. 6, 2026 compared to Nov. 6, 2025 shows a vast contrast in where the state sits with its water frozen on the mountainsides.

On Nov. 6, 2026, Colorado’s snowpack was at a paltry 22% of median average, with only 0.2 inches of SWE locked in away in the snow. On Nov. 6, 2026, 1.1 inches more of SWE is in the snowpack currently, creating a total of 1.3 inches of SWE.

Nov. 6, 2026 is no where near the the record SWE on this date. That record was set on Nov. 6, 1986, when 3.5 inches of SWE was locked away in the snowpack, a full 2.2 inches more than what is showing on Nov. 6, 2026.

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.