DENVER — For the first time in 21 months, Colorado is drought-free, an incredible turnaround from a year ago when the state was decimated by fires.

The U.S. Drought Monitor update this week from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed all of Colorado was out of drought conditions for the first time since Aug. 28, 2017.

Only 0.01% of the state — about 8 square miles — is experiencing abnormally dry conditions in Montezuma and Yuma counties, but those areas are not considered to be in a drought.

In fact, it’s the lowest amount of dryness in Colorado since the Drought Monitor began in 2000.

It’s an incredible turnaround from last summer, when about 80% of the state was experiencing some sort of dry status.

Even three months ago, 8.2% of the state was experiencing drought conditions and 67% was under severe drought or worse.

But no more, not after a winter and spring brought large amounts of snow to the mountains and high amounts of moisture to the Front Range.

The mountain snowpack is about double where it typically would be in late May and most of it has yet to melt and run off.

As of Wednesday, Colorado’s snowpack was at 240% of normal, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

At the end of April, reservoir storage statewide was 90% of average but only 53% of capacity. But with so much snow still on the mountains, those figures are expected to rise through spring and summer.