Colorado’s snowpack is officially back at all-time lows at the statewide level, at just 63 percent of the long-term median for the date. As of January 13, the snow water equivalent is 4.8 inches, slightly below a prior record set on January 13, 2000 of 4.9 inches. Records date back to 1987, and the gap between the previous all-time low and the current snowpack will almost certainly increase in days to come.

As far as Colorado winter slopesports go, there’s more bad news – according to OpenSnow, no snow is in the forecast at any resort for at least the next five days, with Joel Gratz noting that January 22 to 24 will be the next chance for “meaningful” snow. The bleak forecast is echoed by National Weather Service long-term outlooks, too.

The National Weather Service snowfall mapping report shows that some parts of northern Colorado could get up to two inches of snow through Friday morning, but any snow near a resort will likely be less than an inch – and that’s in the less-likely ‘high-end’ snowfall scenario. Longer-term mapping also shows that significant snow is unlikely through at least January 20, and after that, no ‘risk of heavy snow’ is present through at least January 26 on mapping that specifically addresses the probability of bigger storms.

In other words, it’s looking like potential snowfall from January 22 to 24 might still be a bit limited. On top of that, the dry conditions are expected to persist into February. One example of the expected lack of snow can be seen in the AccuWeather forecast for Breckenridge – between January 13 and February 11, snow is expected on just five days, including January 22 and January 23 of the aforementioned date range.

The lack of snow is having an impact on dryness in Colorado, as well, with about 74 percent of the state now abnormally dry or worse, including 46 percent of the state that’s in a technical stage of drought. This time last year, 29 percent of the state was abnormally dry or worse and 11 percent of the state was in drought.

All this to say, Colorado is lacking snow and there’s not much relief on the way. Unless a major turnaround occurs in February or March, this might end up being the lowest snowpack year ever recorded in the Centennial State.

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