It’s great to see all of the basins above average! The West Slope is in great shape!
Saturday – 1 Apr 2023 – 8:30am
March Summary…
The average low for March is 15 and the average high is 49. The record high of 73 occurred on 19 March 1907. The record low of -25 occurred on 1 March 1913. Precip averages 1.77″ in March with 19.5″ of snow. Wolf Creek Pass averages 4.9″ of liquid equivalent and 75.8″ of snow.
How did we do?







*A couple of notes about this graphic: 1. There are inconsistencies in our historical data. 2. The location of our historical data moved around the Pagosa Springs area. Because of our terrain, just moving a mile or two in any direction results in significant differences. 3. I’m using an average from individual monthly CoCoRaHS totals that include at least 60% of the daily reports. This is not precise but gives us a good idea where we stand.*

Snowpack, Drought, River flow, and lake levels…

* This late in the year we’re starting to see some wacky numbers. The values over about 350%, like the 700% in southern NV and 400% in southeast NM, are due to small sample sizes and low averages. We’ll see more and more of this as the season comes to a close. *

As the winter season winds down, I pay more attention to that last column – highlighted in red. That’s percent of “median peak”. If no more snow fell the Upper San Juan would finish at 157% of its season average, Wolf Creek Summit would finish at 135%, and Weminuche Creek would finish at 195%!
The third column from the right is the “median peak date”. Snowpack tends to peak 9 Apr for the Upper San Juan and 29 Apr for Wolf Creek summit. There’s still time to keep adding to our snowpack!


In our higher elevations in the valley, roughly 7,800ft to 8,500ft, there is still a bunch of snow that needs to melt. Look at the CoCoRaHS snow depth and snowpack snow water equivalent maps above. Example: At 8,000ft just north of Turkey Springs, we have 41″ of snow on the ground that contains 12.8″ of water equivalent. That’s a lot of water that will head downhill when we can string together a few sunny days in the 50s! And mountain run-off probably won’t start for another 2 or 3 weeks.

April outlook…
The average low for April is 24 and the average high is 59. The record high of 81 occurred on 30 Apr 1931. The record low of -4 occurred on 1 Apr 1980. Precip averages 1.38″ in April with 6.3″ of snow – our third driest month. Wolf Creek Pass averages 3.42″ of liquid equivalent and 44.8″ of snow.

The precip outlook on the right indicates “equal chances” for average precip.

And what do we expect?
Arleen is the expert and this is what she expects…
Awe… Transition season… What good fun! Snow is trying to melt however, we’ll see a few fresh inches throughout the month. As always, the snow will melt and the mud will take over. The first week will be unsettled with a few weak systems moving through. We’ll have about 10 dry, warm days in the middle of the month and end with a few weak systems moving though at the end of the month. April will be just about average for precipitation and temperature. Precip only averages 1.38″ in April so if just one systems over-performs, we could be above average. We’ll start out cooler than average and adjust upwards into the middle of the month. With all the snow in the high country, the afternoon winds will set up and keep us from getting too warm.
A HUGE thanks for your precip reports and pictures! Reports help verify our forecasts and make us better forecasters.
Another HUGE thanks to our donors and sponsors! You help cover the cost of this web page and our weather subscriptions, necessary to provide you accurate weather reports!
And if you’re curious about us, check out this excellent video by Matt Martin. We are humbled and honored that he used his talent and time to spotlight Pagosa Weather!
- Shawn
3 Responses
Terrific summary, you all do a great job!
Fantastic update Shawn! The amt of time you, Arleen, and Mark spend on keeping the rest of us informed is truly appreciated!
Our pleasure! We’re very grateful to live in this wonderful community and have such great support!