It’s time to stop hoping things will turn around and accept that this winter will go down in history as one of the worst in a generation. Warmer temperatures and less frequent storms left mountain snow totals struggling to build in the Western U.S. all winter.
The snowpack builds gradually through the season as layers from each storm settle and compact. When storms are frequent and temperatures stay cold, the snowpack deepens and strengthens. But if the weather turns warm or dry, it may fall short of expectations.
Snowpack is measured in two main ways: total snow depth and snow-water equivalent (SWE). SWE is especially important because it quantifies the water actually stored in the snow, providing a clearer picture of how much runoff may be available in spring. For instance, 10 feet of dense snow can hold as much water as 20 feet of lighter snow.
Let’s take a look at the current SWE across the U.S. to see how this early-season snowpack stacks up against the 30-year median.
Overall, the snowpack, as a percentage of average, has gotten even worse since last month.
Regional Snowpack Breakdown
There’s really not much analysis needed.
The entire map is either red, orange, or yellow.
Not a single area is green, blue, or especially dark blue.
Many were hoping for a miracle March to help save the snowpack, but it never happened. At this point, some ski areas are still open, but for many, the season is a wrap.
Interestingly, when looking at the year-to-date precipitation totals, the West received enough precipitation, but it just wasn’t warm enough for it to fall as snow.
Here are the year-to-date precipitation totals from October 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.
As you can see, there is plenty of green and blue.
Taken together, this winter will be remembered less for one catastrophic stretch and more for a season-long failure to stack meaningful snow. Storms came too infrequently, snow levels were often too high, and the mountain snowpack never had the steady reinforcement it needed to recover. Even where precipitation totals looked respectable, too much of it failed to arrive as snow, leaving the West with a shallow, underwhelming snowpack and one of the poorest snowfall seasons in years.
