Snowfalls in late December and early January have resulted in some of the best snowpack conditions the state has seen in at least three years, according to state and federal water experts.

The Water Availability Task Force, a coalition of state and federal water and climate experts, as well as local water providers, reviewed the state’s water conditions Tuesday and delivered plenty of good news. 

One area of the state not often mentioned by the group, Schoefield Pass, which connects the towns of Marble and Crested Butte, recorded almost 144 inches of snow during the Dec. 23 to Jan. 2 period.

Brian Domenesko, a hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Services, a service of the US Department of Agriculture, said that snowfall produces 14.4 inches of water or about 12 feet by ski resort standards.

There was more good news, a welcome relief at a time when drought has been the long-term pattern. The state’s precipitation for calendar year 2021 was only about an inch below normal – not the record-breaking drought of the past few years, according to Peter Goble of the Colorado Climate Center.

The state had a rare combination of a warm and wet December, Goble said.

Winter was slow to start, and then it delivered big snows. That followed the warmest July to December on record, he said, about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average.

Goble noted that, at his home in Berthoud, December and January offered the first above normal precipitation since last May. 

But not all was good news, particularly for southeastern Colorado.

Goble warned that the state could see a worse than normal brushfire season due to the warm, drying conditions from the summer. Those conditions set the stage statewide for the types of fires that took place in December, including the Marshall fire that tore through Louisville and Superior and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. 

Those warm, dry conditions have also hurt soil moisture, with the worst conditions on the Eastern Plains, although for now soil moisture conditions are actually a little better than they were a year ago. 

Statewide, according to Domonkos, snowpack is above normal, at 124% of median, largely due to the late December to early January snowfall. That translates to a 7-inch increase in water.

“It’s huge,” said. “It’s something we’ve wanted for several years.”

How big was that snowfall? On Dec. 1, the state was at 52% of median for snowpack. 

In the San Juan basin, which includes the Dolores, San Miguel, Animas and San Juan rivers, the snowpack is in the best shape it’s been in for the last three years, Domonkos said, adding snowpack also is much improved in the Gunnison River Basin. 

Those snowpack totals show “great potential runoff scenarios come spring,” he said.

The only place where snowpack is still below average, according to Domonkos, is in the Rio Grande River basin in the San Luis Valley and the lower Arkansas River basin.