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Laramie River

Division 1 · Water District 48 · As of 2026-08-26 11:06 MDT
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Laramie River on the ground — the ditches, wells, reservoirs and gages of Water District 48 · clicktap anything for its record

Snowpack — no snow on the ground at 2 SNOTEL sites — normal for the date; the snow year begins in October and typically peaks around May 5. Full snow & runoff picture — charts, forecast history and how the forecasts have verified →

Sites, exceedance bands and sources
SNOTEL siteElev (ft)SWE (in)Median (in)% of medianTypical peak
Joe Wright10140 0.20.0 — May 5 (24.0 in)
Roach9710 0.00.0 — April 25 (17.5 in)

Snow-water equivalent and medians (1991–2020) from NRCS SNOTEL; seasonal volume forecasts from the NRCS National Water and Climate Center. Sites and forecast points are assigned to the district whose boundary contains them — snowpack that feeds this district can also sit in a neighboring headwater district. Toggle the Snow chip on the map above to see the sites.

Topology cross-check: 0 parent disagreements, 10 sizable streams not on this network (vs DWR's route framework — under review)

This flow network was built mechanically; DWR's Source Water Route Framework disagrees with it in the places below. Each row is a question a human reviewer has not yet answered — not an error verdict. Checked 8 streams, 8 agree. Know this water? Tell us →

Sizable streams DWR maps here that this network does not carry:

Stuck Creek (12 mi) · Nunn Creek (11 mi) · Jimmy Creek (10 mi) · La Garde Creek (9 mi) · Stub Creek (7 mi) · Link Creek (6 mi) · Porter Creek (5 mi) · Drink Creek (4 mi)

Snow and runoff

Snow-water equivalent, WY2026

No snow on the ground — normal for the date; the snow year begins in October. The chart shows the full water year just ending.

SNOTEL siteElev (ft)SWE (in)Median (in)% of medianTypical peak
Joe Wright10140 0.20.0 — May 5 (24.0 in)
Roach9710 0.00.0 — April 25 (17.5 in)

NRCS SNOTEL, daily. Sites are assigned to the district whose boundary contains them — the snow that feeds this district can also sit in a neighboring headwater district.

Two ways a snow year goes wrong (1980–2026)

A bad snow year here comes in two flavors (both called snow droughtA winter that shorts the snowpack. It happens two ways: a dry one, where the snow never comes, and a warm one, where near-normal snow falls but melts off weeks early -- and the river feels them differently.), and the river feels them differently. In 4 of the last 47 winters the snow never came — the pack peaked below 80% of its median. In 2 more, the snow came but left early — a near-normal peak melted out two weeks or more ahead of its usual date, sending the water down before the season needed it. This year was one of the dry ones: the pack peaked at 49% of median.

The snow never came: 1981, 2002, 2012, 2026. The snow left early: 1987, 1989.

Computed by this site from 2 SNOTEL sites’ full daily records (NRCS AWDB, back to 1980). Each year is measured against each site’s own multi-decade median — not the 1991–2020 normal the chart above uses — so the 1980s grade against a fair baseline. Peak and melt-out need 85% of the season’s days on the record; thin years are dropped, not guessed. Derived from snow measurements alone — it cannot tell dry-from-warm causes apart, only what the snowpack did.