Much of Nevada and parts of the Western United States have been affected by a “snow drought,” a condition meteorologists link to unseasonably warm weather that has shifted precipitation from snow toward rain and left less snow to store for spring melt. Each winter, snow at higher elevations acts as a natural reservoir that slowly melts into creeks and rivers as temperatures rise in spring. When winter snow does not accumulate or does not remain frozen, the change can carry into the spring and summer water cycle, affecting irrigation, municipal supplies, fisheries and wildlife.
On Jan. 1, only 379,000 acres across the West were covered with snow, far below the roughly 1.46 million acres that usually blanket the Western U.S. The precipitation pattern is part of why the West has faced “snow level issues,” meteorologists said. In Nevada, Jeff Anderson of the Natural Resources Conservation Service said the start of the season was unusually warm and that storms produced rain rather than snow at higher elevations. “It was an unusually warm start to the season. When we got storms, we got rain instead of snow in the mountains,” Anderson said.
The reduced snow storage shows up in the state’s current snowpack totals. As of Jan. 1, Nevada’s statewide snowpack was 74% of median. The Tahoe, Truckee, Carson and Walker basins were described as around normal, with a 50-50 chance of reaching median snowpack by April 1. Other areas were reported to be lagging, including the Upper Humboldt Basin and the Lower Humboldt Basin, where snow water equivalent was far below median. Tim Bardsley, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service, said at an early January weather briefing that the Upper Humboldt Basin had just a 20 percent chance of reaching its median snowpack. The Ruby Mountains outside Elko were also cited for record low snow water amounts.
Snow droughts can take different forms, with the most common being a lack of either rain or snow, and another being precipitation falling as rain instead of snow. Baker Perry, the Nevada state climatologist, warned that soil can only store limited water. “You can only store so much water in the soil,” Perry said. Even where some rainfall arrives during winter, the state climatologist said conditions still depend on snow accumulation to build reliable runoff. Perry also said good precipitation occurred especially in October and November, but Nevada and the Eastern Sierra still closed out 2025 with the lowest snowpack in more than 40 years, which he linked largely to unseasonably warm temperatures.
Warmth in the period leading into winter helped drive the unusual conditions. In November, statewide temperatures in Nevada were nearly 6 degrees above “normal” for the last three decades, and some days reached 10 degrees or more above normal. Reno tied its previous record for warmest November since 1893, and it did not see its first frost until mid-November, setting a record for its latest fall freeze. Perry said those patterns point to “the future here of the West,” describing how the current winter fits within broader warming trends.
The report also tied the snow outlook to water planning stress far beyond Nevada, including in negotiations over Colorado River operations. The Colorado River Basin spans hundreds of square miles and supplies water to multiple states, but meteorologists said parts of the basin are in “pretty poor condition.” Tim Bardsley said that while the Northern Rockies had a decent snowpack, regions that rely on the over-tapped Colorado River for water—including Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and southern Colorado—were struggling.
In Colorado, nearly a quarter of snow measuring stations with at least 20 years of data were at record lows on Christmas Day, with temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees above normal. In early January, more than three-quarters of snow measuring sites in Colorado, and sites in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, were reported to be below the 20th percentile, despite much of the basin receiving more than 100% of normal precipitation.
Reservoir levels also remain low. Lake Mead and Lake Powell were described as at 33% and 26% of capacity, respectively. The report said those reservoirs remain affected by an imbalance between water supply and demand, and it noted that Nevada, the smallest user of Colorado River water, has already seen a 7% cut to its allotment in recent years. Because Southern Nevada does not use its full allotment, water users there do not always notice such cuts, the report said.
Bronson Mack, a spokesperson for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said no further additional cuts to Nevada’s water allocations are expected this year. At the federal level, the Bureau of Reclamation released proposed guidelines for the operation and management of Lake Powell and Lake Mead at the year’s end if the seven states that rely on the river cannot agree on how to manage ongoing shortfalls. The draft environmental impact statement outlined multiple proposals, while the states, including Nevada, were seeking to craft their own agreement rather than have federal guidelines imposed on them. Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, said in a press release that federal officials aim to prop up Lake Powell and limit pain for the Upper Basin while the Lower Basin bears the brunt, adding that “It is clear federal officials are determined to prop up Lake Powell and limit the pain for the Upper Basin while the Lower Basin bears the brunt.”
A final decision on the river’s future is slated for Oct. 1, the start of the new water year, as negotiations continue against a backdrop of low snowpack and low reservoir storage.