January 2026 snow summary
- The US West is in a snow drought, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS).
- Snow-covered area across the western United States was 34 percent of average for January, ranking last in the 26-year satellite record. On January 12, snow-covered area likely reached a maximum for the season.
- Snow cover duration was 63 percent below the 26-year satellite record average at the end of the month.
- Snow albedo, also known as snow brightness, moderated by snow age and dust contamination, varied from low to high values, reaching a peak on January 9 after widespread snowstorms. High temperatures followed, driving the albedo to a minimum on January 17.
- Snow water equivalent (SWE) remained below average during the month, despite almost all stations showing gains in SWE.
Launching Snow Today 2026
The Snow Today team is pleased to release updated near-real-time data for the 2026 water year marking our seventh year of continuous production, visualization, and analysis. On December 8, 2025, a new version of data was released on the Snow Today viewer and a new region was added. Both the western United States and New Zealand are now available with plans to expand to Alaska in coming months. Earlier this week, the updated snow surface property data set was published in gridded and tabular format, summarized by state or river basin.
To better serve our Snow Today users, the team will be soliciting requests for new regions of analysis. The request form will be available on the About page within the week. All submitted regions will be considered for summarized data and inclusion on the Snow Today website.
Recent publications show that the use of spectral mixture analysis methods adopted by Snow Today result in the most accurate snow albedo estimates for multispectral satellite observations, similar to previous results for snow cover accuracy. These accurate estimates of snow albedo inform our understanding of cold content needed to ripen the snow and melt rates for ripe snow.
Overview of conditions
A snow drought has gripped the US West, according to report from January 8, 2025, by NIDIS. Snow-covered area in January across the western United States was 66 percent below average, at 401,000 square kilometers (155,000 square miles) of snow cover, ranking last in the 26-year satellite record (Table 1). Snow-covered area for January was 1,290,000 square kilometers (498,000 square miles) below 2017, the highest year, and 285,000 square kilometers (110,00 square miles) below 2012, the second lowest January on record.
Table 1. January 2026 Snow Cover in the Western United States (Relative to the 25-Year Satellite Record)
| Snow-Covered Area | Square Kilometers | Square Miles | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2026, Lowest | 401,000 | 155,000 | 26 |
2001 to 2025, Average | 1,191,000 | 460,000 | -- |
2017, Highest | 1,691,000 | 653,000 | 1 |
2025, Previous year | 962,000 | 371,000 | 20 |
2012, Previous lowest | 686,000 | 265,000 | 25 |
As of January 31, 2026, the maximum snow cover date for the 2026 water year was January 12, 2026 (Figure 1). Since 2001, there have only been six years where the date of maximum snow cover was later than February 1. Over the 26-year satellite record, January 15 was the average date of maximum snow cover.
Snow cover was far below average in all western states during January (Figure 2). The only state with snow cover anywhere near average during the month was California, with 72 percent of average snow cover, although most of this snow came during the last week of December and first week of January. To the east, both Nevada and Utah had extremely low snow cover during the month, with only 19 and 20 percent average snow cover, respectively. The Southwest also received very little snowfall with snow cover at 16 percent of average in Arizona and 35 percent in New Mexico. In the Pacific Northwest, Oregon had the lowest snow cover at 15 percent of average while Washington and Idaho did not reach half of average in the 26-year record, measuring 38 percent and 49 percent of average respectively. Snow cover was also low across the interior states of Montana (28 percent of average), Wyoming (36 percent of average), South Dakota (13 percent of average), and Colorado (41 percent of average).
Similarly, all major river basins experienced below-average snow cover during January (Figure 2). The Arkansas-White-Red (69 percent of average) and California (60 percent of average) basins had the highest snow cover but were still well below average. The Great Basin (25 percent of average), Lower Colorado (16 percent of average), and Missouri (20 percent of average) basins all had extremely low snow cover. The Pacific Northwest (43 percent of average), Rio Grande (32 percent of average), and Upper Colorado (36 percent of average) basins had slightly higher snow cover than other basins during the month but were still below average.
Conditions in context: Snow cover
Snow-covered area in January was the lowest ever in the 26-year satellite record (Figure 3, upper left). Storms in the first week of the month increased snow cover across the West, but snowfall was limited for the rest of the month, despite some insignificant storms occurring in the last week of January. On January 31, snow-covered area was 67 percent below the 26-year average while snow cover percent was 60 to 100 percent below average (Figure 3, upper right). Only low elevation areas of the eastern Sierra Nevada had significantly above average snow cover, particularly around Mono Lake and in the Kern River basin. Scattered areas of the Oregon and Washington Cascades, central Idaho, and western New Mexico also experienced above average snow cover for the month but regionally were still below average.
Snow cover duration, measured in days summed from October 1, 2025, to January 31, 2026, increased throughout January but remained 60 to 70 percent below average (Figure 3, bottom left). Snow cover duration in Wyoming was particularly low, with 40 to 60 fewer snow-covered days than average across the state. Below average snow duration—20 to 60 days below average—were observed in Idaho as well as large areas of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. Montana had 20 to 40 less snow-covered days than average. As with snow cover percent, some areas of the eastern and southern Sierra Nevada and the Washington Cascades had an above average number of snow-covered days.
Average snow brightness, known as snow albedo, was below average at the start of January, then increased to above average during the first week of the month, following widespread snowfall (Figure 4, left). Albedo sharply declined below the twenty-fifth percentile over the following week until storms in the final week of the month led to a temporary reprieve, but only to the twenty-fifth percentile. Unlike snow cover percent and duration, there was more variability in albedo by state in January (Figure 4, right), likely because of where storms hit and due to shifts in temperatures. Albedo was below average in most of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and eastern Nevada. In the southern Sierra Nevada in California, albedo was below average but was generally above average through northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Arizona and New Mexico also had large areas with above average albedo for the month.
Conditions in context: Snow water equivalent (SWE)
Snow water equivalent (SWE) at the beginning of January varied by state, with below average SWE in most western states (Figure 5, left). California, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming were the only states with a significant number of above average SWE. The majority of monitoring stations in all other states recorded below average or well below average SWE. SWE was extremely low in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and most of Utah and Colorado. A small number of stations in northwest Utah recorded above average SWE at the beginning of the month.
Although SWE increased at almost all monitoring stations through the month (Figure 6 left), many still finished the month with below average SWE. Only in northwest Wyoming, central Idaho, and western Montana did a significant number of stations have above average SWE. As seen in the snow cover data, above average SWE was also observed at a limited number of sites in the southern Sierra Nevada of California and the northern Cascades of Washington.
Washington, California, and Idaho had the highest average increase in SWE over the month of about 10 centimeters (4 inches) (Figure 6). Some stations increased SWE by more than 25 centimeters (9.8 inches). Minimal increases in SWE was the rule for other states, with an average gain of 5 centimeters (2 inches).
