An AP report describes preliminary Colorado glacier surveys, but their dates remain unspecified.
Why it matters: The findings may provide an early signal about glacier and snowpack conditions in Colorado. But the available materials do not establish calendar-year 2026 glacier losses or quantify effects on water supplies, ecosystems or wildfire.
- The AP report says aerial surveys over the past two summers found some Colorado glacier locations with more than 10 feet of reported lowering, but the survey dates are unspecified.
- Dan McGrath said Colorado glaciers thinned by at least 4 feet per year on average from 2020 through 2025.
- The Natural Resources Conservation Service reported statewide snow-water equivalent at 56% of median on January 1, 2026.
- A Western Water Assessment briefing reported approximately 22% of average snow-water equivalent on April 1, 2026, and 60 of 64 long-record manual snow-course sites at their lowest April 1 level; it does not specify whether the 22% figure is statewide or basin-specific.
The available evidence describes preliminary observations, not a completed account of glacier loss during calendar 2026. The supplied Associated Press report is identified in the materials as an October 24 report, but its publication year is not provided.
The report says researchers used aerial imagery collected over the past two summers, with support from LightHawk, to build three-dimensional models of Colorado glaciers. It does not provide the survey dates. As a result, the available materials do not establish whether locations reported to have lost more than 10 feet did so during calendar 2026 or across the preceding two summers.
McGrath, an associate professor of geosciences at Colorado State University, said glaciers thinned by at least 4 feet per year on average from 2020 through 2025. The materials do not identify the glaciers or their exact locations, provide measurement uncertainty or cite a primary survey dataset. They also do not clarify whether the figures measure ice-surface lowering, meaning a drop in the glacier's surface elevation, physical thickness loss or mass loss.
Snowpack conditions were also weak. The Natural Resources Conservation Service reported statewide snow-water equivalent, the amount of water contained in snow, at 56% of median on January 1, 2026. It also reported that 38% of long-record SNOTEL sites, automated snow-monitoring stations, were at record-low levels.
A Western Water Assessment briefing reported approximately 22% of average snow-water equivalent on April 1, 2026. The same supplied materials cite 60 of 64 long-record manual snow-course sites at their lowest April 1 level. The 22% figure's geographic scope is unspecified. It also cannot be directly compared with 56% because one uses average and the other uses median as the denominator.
The supplied materials do not identify a source that quantifies effects on ecosystems or wildfire, and they do not establish a specific impact on Colorado River or Upper Colorado River basin supplies.
By the numbers
- 4 feet per year - Average glacier thinning reported by Dan McGrath from 2020 through 2025
- 56% of median - Statewide Colorado snow-water equivalent on January 1, 2026
- 60 of 64 - Long-record manual snow-course sites reported at their lowest April 1 level, according to the supplied Western Water Assessment materials
Yes, but: The glacier findings remain difficult to evaluate independently because the supplied materials do not provide survey dates, named glaciers, locations, uncertainty estimates, measurement definitions or a primary dataset. The snowpack figures also use different denominators, and the geographic scope of the 22% figure is unspecified.