Recent warm weather is raising concerns for the snowpack of the Roaring Fork Valley and whether that snowpack will be enough water for the coming warm season in 2025. 

Erin Walter, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Grand Junction, looks at impacts or hazards to our water and looks at forecasts for the spring runoff and possible flash flooding in the summers. 

“It’s been a concern because our snowpack has plateaued this year,” Walter said. “Usually it climbs, but the average has decreased in the Colorado River Basin.”

Walter said it’s a concern that middle- and low-elevation areas, such as Glenwood Springs, have received less snow and stayed warmer..

“Our headwaters and higher elevations have done well with the storm systems this season, but anything south and west of it hasn’t,” Walter said. “By the spring runoff period, we do have a concern for drought conditions and possible wildfires.”

Walter said the Roaring Fork Valley hasn’t had a lot of precipitation, dropping to less than 30% of normal this time of year, with this normal being compared to a percent median from 1991 to 2020. 

“Over the next seven days, it looks like we have a storm system moving through later tonight and tomorrow, so that should bring us up,” Walter said. “Then on Friday, it could bring a good amount of snow and then we’ll see a warm-up after that, but then it looks like another storm is on the tail.”

Walter said the active pattern could help increase precipitation levels in the Roaring Fork Valley.

“The snow coming now is definitely helpful, especially in the San Juan region, who really struggled this year,” Walter said. “We did have a fairly cold season, but we’re in a dry spell.”

For more information on coming snow or environmental impacts the weather will have, visit the National Weather Service at weather.gov/gjt/, or call 970-243-7007 to reach the Grand Junction office.