Winter Brought Record Warmth & Dry Conditions For 7 US Ski States

Record warmth kept hold across the American West this winter, with seven key ski states: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming all logging their warmest season on record, according to new data from the country’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The December–February period ranked as the second‑warmest U.S. winter ever recorded overall, but the West stood out dramatically. NOAA’s climate monitoring shows that vast areas west of the Mississippi “essentially missed winter,” with temperatures soaring several degrees above long‑term averages. By contrast North America’s East Coast saw one of its coldest and snowiest winters in many years.

Much of the West also endured its driest winter in 45 years, with precipitation frequently arriving as rain rather than snow. This shift fuelled one of the worst mid‑winter snow droughts in decades across the Rockies, leaving snowpack levels at or near record lows in several mountain ranges. For ski regions, the implications were immediate and stark, however resorts maximised snowmaking opportunities to open a surprising amount of terrain considering the conditions.