The western US is in a snow drought, and storms have been making it worse
The Conversation••nation
Key Points:
- Much of the western U.S. began 2026 experiencing a snow drought, characterized by low snowpack water content despite recent record precipitation from atmospheric river storms.
- Snow droughts differ from other droughts as they involve a lack of snow specifically, not necessarily a lack of overall precipitation, often due to warmer temperatures causing precipitation to fall as rain instead of snow.
- A major atmospheric river storm in December 2025 brought heavy rainfall and flooding to the Pacific Northwest, but also worsened the snow drought by melting existing snowpack, reducing water storage by about 50% in some areas like the Yakima River Basin.
- Climate warming is increasing the frequency of warm snow droughts, where rain replaces snow and melts existing snow
