Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Missouri River Basin for December 2024–February 2025. Dated March 2025.

Despite a warm start, temperatures this winter were mostly below normal. This winter was dry, with snowfall well below normal across much of the northern and central Plains.

Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Canadian and U.S. Prairies and High Plains for December 2024–February 2025, with an outlook for April–June 2025. Dated March 2025. 

Despite warm temperatures in December, a frigid February led to below-average seasonal temperatures across the central portion of the region. Very dry conditions were observed throughout southwestern Alberta and much of the High Plains. Areas in South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, and Alberta received less than 45% of their normal precipitation this winter.

This NIDIS-funded study, led by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder/Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), identified challenges in predicting seasonal water supply during drought years in snow-dominated basins of the western United States due to climate warming.