Last weekend’s winter storm may have covered much of the country in a glut of snow and ice, but the season has not delivered out West, where several states face a snowpack drought.In Colorado, the snowpack is “the lowest on record for this point in the season,” said Peter Goble, the assistant state climatologist. “All of our mountain ranges are well below normal.”It’s the same story in Utah.“We’re in uncharted territory right now, and we’re headed toward the lowest snowpack we’ve ever had on Feb. 1,” said Kevin Perry, a University of Utah atmospheric scientist.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementGiven those conditions, scientists are growing concerned about the water supply and a risk of wildfires later in the year. Because the mountain snowpack in Western states runs off as water throughout spring and summer, the levels influence how much water farmers can use to irrigate crops, how risky the wildfire season will be, and how much electricity hydropower dams can generate.Measurements of Western snowpack come from the National Resources Conservation Service, which collects data from more than 800 high-elevation monitoring stations in the mountains. The service tracks how much water is in the snowpack at more than 80 basins in the Western continental United States, and its data shows that all but a handful are trending well below average.Only a handful of basins in the Western U.S. are near average snowpack levels. (Natural Resources Conservation Service)(Natural Resources Conservation Service)While it’s not unusual to have some basins lower than historical averages, it’s rare to have nearly every region of the West facing snowfall deficits.In Washington state, a mid-January climb of Mount Saint Helens revealed conditions that felt more like June than midwinter, with large patches of volca …
