FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) – Overnight some areas of Northern Colorado received anywhere from 1 to 4 inches of snow. Although that may not sound like a whole lot of precipitation, researchers at Colorado State University say any little bit helps.

The latest snowfall in Fort Collins meant a day of fun for children. But what children see as fun, forecasters and researches at CSU see as a precious commodity — water.

“This is sort of a typical, not a really big storm, not a whole lot of water content, but at least it’s a storm,” CSU State Climatologist Nolan Doesken said. “We have hardly been able to get anything east of the mountains.”

Doesken said any precipitation helps when Colorado’s seen a dismal start to the winter.

“(It’s) good progress, but were still 20 to 25 percent below average,” he said.

Doesken says the state needs more help from Mother Nature.

“We would need another 2 to 3 weeks of stormy weather for the state, as a whole, to have us back up near average; and then a steady progress of storms on and off through the rest of the winter. So we’ve still got some work to do to catch up,” he said.

Doesken said it’s really hard to predict what the rest of the winter looks like because their models aren’t really indicating a whole lot.