Report-back: Did any Mountain Rain or Snow regions break weather records this winter?

April 2026 - Written by Luisa Ortega

Whether you were searching for snow in the West or shoveling your car out of a blizzard in the East, this season was anything but average. We saw stark nationwide differences in seasonal winter patterns, with record-breaking dryness out West and a series of harsh, cold systems dominating the East. Here’s a closer look at this winter’s most significant records across Mountain Rain or Snow regions.

Western US

The Pacific Northwest experienced historic flooding and record single-day rainfall in mid-December. The flooding resulted in the Snohomish River and Skagit River breaking all-time flood records on December 11th, 2025. Specifically, the Snohomish River broke its record for the highest crest level, reaching 34.15 feet on December 12th, surpassing the previous record of 33.97 feet set in November 1990. The Skagit River gauge near Mt. Vernon, WA reached a preliminary record of 37.7 feet, breaking the old record of 37.4 feet.

Single-day rainfall on December 10th at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport set a daily rainfall record with 1.6 inches. Olympia Regional Airport recorded 3.03 inches on December 8th, 2025, also breaking a record there. The rain received was in part driven by a Category 5 atmospheric river that delivered up to 10 inches of rain in some areas and an estimated 5 trillion gallons of water over a one-week period. The moisture originated roughly 7,000 miles away near the Philippines, which is unusually far even by atmospheric river standards.

One of the most dramatically low snowpacks experienced in the West was in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Of the 64 sites across the Rockies, where manual snow course data has been collected monthly for more than half a century, 60 either tied or had the lowest measurements on record for April 1st across years. More than one-quarter of the locations measured no snow at all, which is the first time in history to record 18 snowless sites at this time of year. As of April 1st, the SWE averaged across 115 SNOTEL stations in Colorado was 3.3 inches, just 22% of the 30-year median. The previous low in the SNOTEL era on April 1st was in 2012 at 9.1 inches – this means that current levels contain less than 40% of the water in the snow compared to the previous lowest year.

Northeast US

In sharp contrast to the snowless West, one-third of the US population was impacted by winter storm effects in the Northeast US. From February 22nd-24th, 2026, the February Blizzard of 2026 was classified as a major snowstorm based on NOAA's Regional Snowfall Index, dropping 1-2 feet of snow from Philadelphia to Boston, with up to 3 feet in southeastern New England. Blizzard warnings were issued for most northeastern Mid-Atlantic states, where snowfall affected more than 115 million people, including about 28 million who received over a foot of snow. Over 600,000 people lost power at the height of the blizzard, and at least 30 fatalities were confirmed. The powerful winter storm rapidly intensified, "bombing out" as atmospheric pressure dropped 41 millibars in 24 hours, well beyond the benchmark for a bomb cyclone (a system is categorized as a bomb cyclone when pressure drops by at least 24 millibars within 24 hours).

Understanding winter weather trends is critical for effective water management across the US. In the West, snow is a natural reservoir that determines snow drought risk and water availability for millions of people. In the east, large winter storms have large economic impacts. Dry or wet winters are at the intersection of climate and health, where the amount of snow impacts agriculture, public health, safety, and economic stability across the nation.