With Tania Soussan, the latest (sub. req.) on our meager snowpack and prospects for the future. The current conditions:

The upper Rio Grande, Rio Chama, San Juan and Cimarron river basins have less than a third of the normal snow water equivalent for this time of year, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Snotel network.

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are at 24 percent of normal, the Jemez at 15 percent and the Gila at 9 percent.

“If you look historically, this is a real slow start to the season,” said Tom Pagano, a snowpack forecaster at the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland, Ore.

The forecast:

With a growing La Niña in the Pacific, federal forecasters say odds favor dry weather across the Southwest for the next several months.