Drought

Jay Weiner, the water attorney for the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe on the Colorado River in Arizona and California, discusses how tribes play a role in Colorado River governance, even if they’re not officially in the closed-door negotiations.

Record-low snowpack across the Upper Colorado River Basin will likely translate to poor conditions for spring runoff, and could mean emergency action to supplement low water levels in Lake Powell.

The heat wave comes in the midst of an already challenging winter for the Rocky Mountains, compounding months of warm and dry conditions.

The seven states that rely on the Colorado River need to figure out who will take cuts to water usage as climate change worsens drought in the basin. The federal government needs to start an environmental review process in order to have any new operating guidelines in place by October.

The federal government manages the biggest dams on the Colorado River, but it hasn’t been taking a forceful role in negotiations between the states on how to allocate increasingly scarce water in the basin.

Warm temperatures and a lack of snow have made for an anomalous winter in the Upper Colorado River Basin. While it’s not “the new normal,” winters are certainly warming up due to climate change.

Water forecasters, researchers, and politicians are all watching with bated breath as closed-door negotiations continue over allocating water in the Colorado River after 2026. Many are getting frustrated with what they see as a lack of action in the face of a mounting crisis.

Keystone Resort in Colorado was the first resort in the country to open in 2025, in part due to their emphasis on early-season snowmaking. As climate change amplifies drought in the Mountain West, ski areas across the region are considering how best to use increasingly scarce water resources.

Warmer temperatures in November meant that less snowpack accumulated. But storms did increase soil moisture in the Upper Colorado River Basin, making future precipitation more likely to run off slopesides and boost rivers and streams.

This past water year was dry, with not all of the snowpack making it into the basin’s rivers and streams. Forecasters will be looking out for conditions driven by climate change and prolonged drought as they consider what Water Year 2026 will bring.