After an abnormally warm summer and fall, November’s snow has helped relieve Colorado drought conditions, particularly in the southeastern corner of the state. 

The major storm that started on Election Day and set a 30-year record for November snowfall on Pikes Peak also dropped several feet of snow in the lower Arkansas Valley and across a portion of the eastern plains. Trinidad received 43 inches or nearly 4 feet of snow. For some communities that meant several inches of precipitation, well above what the region could expect from November through February, said Russ Schumacher, state climatologist. 

In those communities, only one storm in 1946 topped the early November storm, he said. 

For two counties on the state line, Baca and Prowers, the snow allowed them to move from severe drought to abnormally dry, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Such an improvement typically doesn’t happen in a single storm, Schumacher said. 

El Paso County has also come out of a moderate drought to just abnormally dry since the beginning of the month through Tuesday, the monitor shows. The northern portions of the state, including the Denver Metro Area, are seeing drought conditions persist.  

Across the state, the amount of land considered in drought has dropped from about 52% in October to about 42%, said Brad Pugh, the operational drought lead at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. He does not expect drought to develop through the end of February. 

The snowstorm hitting the state just before the Thanksgiving holiday had not yet been factored into the drought monitor, but it was bringing a welcome boost with well over an inch of water in some areas on Tuesday, Schumacher said.

“For any time of year, this is a very big storm,” he said. 

But it’s still early in the season, and Colorado typically sees its critical snowpack build in the mountains later in the year. Colorado Springs, Denver and much of the eastern population centers in the state rely on snowpack for water year round. 

Looking forward, the snow outlook for the coming months is more uncertain than usual because neither El Niño nor La Niña have formed, Schumacher said. 

But water providers are still happy with a strong start to the snow-season. 

The Nov. 4 snowstorm set a 30-year record for the most snow accumulation during the month on both the North and South Slopes of Pikes Peak. The North Slope received 29 inches or about 259% of average and the South Slope received 44.3 inches or about 311% of the 30-year average, said Nick Harris, an engineer in Water Resource Planning. 

While local watersheds only provide a portion of the communities’ water the whole system also looks healthy with 106% of the average amount of water for this time of year, he said. 

Denver Water, which serves 1.5 million people in the metro area, also has strong numbers with 120% of the median snowpack on the South Platte and 104% of the median on the Colorado River, said Nathan Elder, manager of water supply for the utility.  

“It’s been one of the better starts to the season that we’ve seen,” he said. The last time the utility had a strong start like this was in 2019. 

Such heavy wet snow before the ground freezes can help recharge soil moisture and ensure that more water makes it to streams and rivers in the spring, Elder said. 

The next two weeks across Colorado are expected to bring dry, warm weather, Pugh said, and the longer term outlook also reflects dry weather for southern Colorado. 

But all the snowiest months, including March, lay ahead. 

“There is still a long, long winter yet to go,” Schumacher said.