🔎 Missing Snowpack Snowpack on the mountains of the western U.S. is usually at peak levels this time of year. But this year it’s dismally low compared with past seasons. Mild weather made it the warmest winter on record for nine western states, so most precipitation fell as rain, not snow. Other areas saw below average precipitation. Then a record-shattering heat wave hit in March, causing a massive melt of what little snow there was. Why this matters: The snowpack typically serves as the West’s water reserve, enabling rivers and reservoirs to stay topped up as it slowly melts during the spring and summer. Without the snow, the threat rises for water shortages and wildfires. The Colorado River Basin is in particular trouble. Snowpack there has been at or near record lows all winter, by a wide margin. The chance of water shortages will be high this summer along the struggling Colorado River (which is already suffering a severe and multidecade drought). What the experts say: “These ...