The current regional snowpack levels should leave farmers and skiers alike praying for winter storms.

A mostly dry January left snowpack across the state and locally below normal levels.

Snow levels for the local regional are 66 percent of the historical median, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service. This encompasses snowpack that will flow into the Animas, Dolores, San Juan and San Miguel rivers.

The state’s snowpack as a whole is 83 percent of the historical median.

“With nearly one-third of the winter remaining, Colorado is running short of time to catch up,” said Brian Domonkos, Colorado Snow Survey Supervisor. “Statewide snowfall would need to amount to 124 percent of normal from now until mid-April to achieve normal snowpack peak levels.”

While locally in the high elevations the snow didn’t melt, in Durango there wasn’t much new snow to keep the region on track with the historical median, said Sterling Moss, the district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Durango.

But it is too soon to start worrying because January normally is one of the driest winter months, Moss said.

The data shows, once out of the seven years that the state had similar snowpack levels, spring snows brought the state back up to normal levels, Domonkos said.

Compared with all the other basins, our snowpack currently ranks second-lowest in the state. Regional snow depths beat out only the Upper Rio Grande region, which includes the San Luis Valley.

This has been the trend over the last few years, Domonkos said.

The absence of snow has left the northern two-thirds of La Plata County abnormally dry and the southern portion in a moderate drought, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But this is not unusual.

“The Southwest is always prone to extended drought cycles,” said Joel Lee, the district conservationist for the Cortez NRCS office.

With the snowpack future uncertain, it highlights the importance of reservoirs. The current reservoir storage for our region is 88 percent of average. This includes both large and small reservoirs, including McPhee, Navajo and Vallecito and many smaller ones.

In four of seven basins, the reservoirs now are at above-average levels.

mshinn@ durangoherald.com