Boulder’s water system is likely to hold through this year without mandatory restrictions, but only if conditions don’t worsen.
City officials say they expect to remain in a “drought watch,” urging voluntary conservation, even as snowpack has fallen to historically low levels and much of Boulder County sits in extreme drought.
The underlying picture is more fragile than the designation suggests.
Snowpack in the larger river basins that supply Boulder’s water is just 32% and 25% of normal — levels the city describes as “historically low … in the range of … 1981, 2002, and 2012,” some of the driest years on record, according to a memo to the Water Resources Advisory Board.
And in one key watershed, conditions have already collapsed: Middle Boulder Creek’s snowpack has fully melted about six weeks ahead of schedule.
The city’s reservoirs are currently near typical levels for this time of year, but that may not last. With snowpack so low, they “may or may not fill during [spring] runoff,” staff warned in the memo.
What happens next depends on whether the reservoirs refill. Each spring, Boulder calculates how much water it expects to have relative to demand, using a formula that determines whether the city moves from voluntary conservation to mandatory restrictions. That calculation won’t be finalized until early May, when snowpack, supply and runoff are clearer.
“But we anticipate that we already hit the peak snowpack back in mid-March, which is one reason the city declared a drought watch,” said city Water Resources Project Manager Isabelle Lheritier at the Water Resources Advisory Board meeting on April 20.
For now, officials expect the city to stay just below the threshold that would trigger restrictions. Lower water demand, down 30% since the early 2000s, along with relatively strong reservoir levels are helping keep the system stable, Lheritier said.
Where Boulder gets its water
Boulder has more than one source of water, which helps keep its supply steady, unlike some Front Range cities that rely heavily on the Colorado River.
Roughly two-thirds of the city’s water comes from local mountain watersheds — Middle and North Boulder creeks — where snow runoff fills multiple reservoirs, including Barker and Silver Lake. The rest comes from the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, a transmountain system that diverts water from across the Continental Divide to the Front Range and can provide more water in dry years.
Allocations are managed by Northern Water, and this year’s allocation is 80%, slightly above the standard allotment of 70%. That gives Boulder access to 16,800 acre-feet of water. For context, over the past four to five years, Boulder’s annual water use has been around 17,500 acre-feet. In dry years, officials shift strategy, using more imported Colorado-Big Thompson water and preserving local reservoir storage for later in the season.
That flexibility helps explain why the city is not yet facing mandatory cuts, even as conditions worsen across the state.
Drought conditions in Boulder and statewide
Meteorologists say the current pattern resembles some of Colorado’s most damaging drought years.
Boulder County is already in extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the most severe conditions since 2012.
Ben Castellani, a meteorologist with BoulderCAST, told Boulder Reporting Lab that while 2012 saw near-normal winter snowfall, an “exceptionally dry” spring pushed the county into extreme drought by early summer.
“And we all remember how active that wildfire season was locally and statewide,” Castellani said.
Some of Colorado’s worst wildfires were in 2012, including the High Park Fire in June that burned about 87,000 acres west of Fort Collins. That same month, the Waldo Canyon Fire ignited west of Colorado Springs. Nearly 350 homes were destroyed and two people died. Boulder saw the Flagstaff Fire, which burned around 300 acres.
BoulderCAST’s comparisons show that Colorado is currently drier than it was in 2012. To Castellani’s knowledge, Boulder has never reached exceptional drought since records began in 2000.
Across Colorado, snowpack is at or below 25% of normal in most basins, and nearly the entire state is in drought. In some areas, especially northwest Colorado, conditions have reached “exceptional drought,” the most severe category of the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Data from the Colorado Climate Center shows that statewide, March 2026 temperatures were 13 degrees above the 1901-2000 average, marking the warmest March on record. It was also the third-driest March statewide.
Confidence is gradually increasing that this summer’s monsoon season will be active. A stronger summer monsoon could bring rain, but also dry lightning, a major cause of wildfire ignitions in Colorado.
Water conservation methods urged
For now, Boulder is asking residents to conserve water voluntarily. That includes a new daytime restriction that prohibits watering plants from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. between May 1 and Sept. 30. Other rules prohibit sprinklers from spraying onto sidewalks or streets, require hoses to have shutoff nozzles and require leaks, including broken sprinkler heads, to be fixed.
“We do plan to ramp up our water conservation messaging throughout the community all summer,” Lheritier said, hoping that voluntary reductions will reduce Boulder’s water use by 10%.
During a drought watch, residents are encouraged to voluntarily reduce water use, including limiting lawn watering to twice a week starting in May, prioritizing water use for trees, converting lawns to native plants and programming sprinkler systems to avoid watering when it rains.
Letting grass grow longer before cutting it can also help retain moisture. Indoor reductions, such as shorter showers and running dishwashers and washing machines only when full, are also encouraged.
Other municipalities in the Front Range have also taken action, with several urging residents to delay watering their lawns until May. Erie temporarily issued a drought emergency on March 20 and rescinded it April 3.
