Ski season is here, but while the eastern half of the U.S. digs out from winter storms, the western U.S. snow season has been off to a very slow start.The snowpack was far below normal across most of the West on Dec. 1, 2025. Denver didn’t see its first measurable snowfall until Nov. 29 – more than a month past normal, and its latest first-snow date on record.But a late start to snow season isn’t necessarily reason to worry about the season ahead.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdrienne Marshall, a hydrologist in Colorado who studies how snowfall is changing in the West, explains what forecasters are watching and how rising temperatures are affecting the future of the West’s beloved snow.The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center’s seasonal outlook for January through March 2026 largely follows a typical La Niña pattern, with warmer and drier conditions to the south, and wetter and cooler conditions to the north. NOAAWhat are snow forecasters paying attention to right now?It’s still early in the snow season, so there’s a lot of uncertainty in the forecasts. A late first snow doesn’t necessarily mean a low-snow year.But there are some patterns that we know influence snowfall that forecasters are watching.For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting La Niña conditions for this winter, possibly switching to neutral midway through. La Niña involves cooler-than-usual sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator west of South America. Cooler ocean temperatures in that region can influence weather patterns across the U.S., but so can several other factors.La Niña – and its opposite, El Niño – don’t tell us what will happen for certain. Instead, they load the dice toward wetter or drier conditions, depending on where you are. La Niñas are generally associated with cooler, wetter conditions in the Pacific Northwest and a little bit warmer, drier conditions in the U.S. Southwest, but not always.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhen we look at the consequences for snow, La Niña does tend to mean more snow in the Pacific Northwest and less in the Southwest, but, again, there’s a lot of variability.Scientists often gauge snow conditions by snow-water equivalent, a measure of the amount of water stored in a snowpack. Most …
