Western Colorado Climate Update For April 2025
The year is off to a warm and dry start, even with some welcome moisture in May. Snowpack across the Gunnison River basin is well below the median at 44% (May 20, 2025) and April was unusually warm.
Dive into the details in our latest climate update, with a focus on the winter that in some ways wasn’t.
Temperatures
In western Colorado April was a month with above average temperatures. For most of Delta county it was the top 20 warmest April’s since 1895.
In fact, many places across Colorado had record-setting temperatures on April 13th, 2025. This excerpt from the Colorado Climate Center explains more about this event:
Snowpack
Warm temperatures contributed to early snowpack melt throughout April, and below-average precipitation did little to replenish the losses. All CO basins finished the month with snowpack below the 1991-2020 median levels, but the situation continues to be most dire across the state’s southernmost river basins, foreshadowing a challenging summer for water supply. The Gunnison river basin is at 31% snow water equivalent as of May 15, 2025.
Gunnison River Basin Reservoir Levels
The major reservoir for the Gunnison River Basin, Blue Mesa, is currently just above average for this time of year. This is a recovery from the record low capacity of 30% in 2021.
Lake Powell and Lake Mead are still at the low capacity of just 10%. According to the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, runoff into Lake Powell is expected to be just 67% of normal, or 4.3 million acre-feet.
Snow Water Equivalent Gunnison River
The Snow water equivalent for the Gunnison and the North Fork of the Gunnison are unusually low and we have had an early snow melt. A dry winter and warm April have contributed to the low water conditions.
Snow water equivalent for the Gunnison River
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Drought
Drought conditions worsened throughout April and May for most parts of the state. Along the West Slope, a new area of D3 (extreme drought) was introduced across Mesa, Delta, and Montrose counties. As of May 13, ~44% of the state is experiencing drought conditions (up from 31% at the beginning of April).
Weather predictions for the Summer
With all this early snow melt and hot spring temperatures, what can we expect for the Summer?
“Looking farther out, there is a mix of good and bad news. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center just released their latest monthly and seasonal outlooks. The outlook for June is for hotter and drier than average conditions across Colorado, and if that is what happens, it will only worsen the drought in the state. But the outlook for July through September hints at an active North American Monsoon season in the southwestern US”.
“Naturally, there is a lot of concern for the wildfire potential when we see such low snowpack and growing drought across Colorado, as drought years are when we have also seen intense wildfires. The drought situation this year is not looking quite as bad as 2002, 2012, or 2018, which were all extremely active wildfire years—but it’s at least in the same conversation. A hot and dry June would increase the wildfire risk, as mid-late June is when we saw big wildfires in these years. But if the monsoon is active, that can help to keep the fire season shorter. Predictions of the monsoon a few months in advance always have a lot of uncertainty, but we can keep a little hope that well-timed summer rains might keep the wildfire risk down”
Let’s hope for rain in the summer and a good monsoon year. But we need to start adapting to these low water conditions now. Mulch your plants, plant drought-tolerant species, use shade covers, plant fast-ripening plant varieties, and do anything else you need to do to prepare for the irrigation water to run out early this year.
Resources:
Here’s why 3 decent winters in a row still isn’t enough to fill Lake Powell Salt Lake Tribune By Anastasia Hufham April 9, 2025
Colorado Climate Center Monthly Climate Summary for April
Snowpack Measurements on the Ground and In the Air Western Slope Conservation Center
The report mentioned in the WSCC article
