Early Idaho snowpack figures look promising
TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Snowpack numbers in Idaho look promising, with percentages well above average at every SNOTEL measuring site.
A lot more snow is needed, however, to ensure an adequate water supply for the 2023 growing season and to help snuff out the lingering drought.
The snowpack “gives us reason to be cautiously optimistic,” Idaho State Climatologist Russ Qualls said at this month’s Idaho Ag Market Outlook Seminar, presented online by the University of Idaho, “but it’s still a little too early to be confident.”
On Tuesday, SNOTEL sites measuring the snow-water equivalent show Goose Creek Basin at 137% of median average with Salmon Falls at 124%. Little Wood Basin is at 143%.
The Snake River Basin above Palisades Reservoir, near the headwaters of the Snake River, is at 112%.
The water year begins Oct. 1, and the first part of January, on average, marks the halfway point of snowfall accumulation in Idaho’s mountains, with the peak snowpack generally occurring in April. Snowpack numbers in 2021 looked promising in January before precipitation tapered off.
Cooler temperatures early in the growing year, along with spring rains helped preserve mountain snowpack and Idaho farmers were grateful for the weather conditions which helped them extend irrigation water and harvest a crop.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts a La Nina weather pattern that could be favorable for snowpack in the Pacific Northwest, Qualls said, although weather predictions turn more “adverse” in late spring and through summer and fall, with predicted warm temperatures and dry conditions.
In a report issued Thursday by the National Drought Mitigation Center, almost all of the state is in a drought situation. A swath of southern Idaho running the entire width of the state is categorized as being in severe drought. None of Idaho, however, is listed as being in an extreme drought.
In early winter months, drought categories aren’t normally pulled back, Qualls said.
Near-average snowpack levels could help Idaho’s farmers precariously manage another crop, said Sean Ellis of the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, but what is hoped for is to have significantly above-average moisture so farmers don’t have to barely get by.
“Farmers in Idaho are saying, ‘Let it snow,’ ” Ellis said.
The Upper Snake River Reservoir System stood at 30% full on Tuesday, with two major reservoirs – Jackson Lake and Palisades – both at 19% full.
American Falls Reservoir is 37% full.
The snowpack figures look promising, he said. And “it’s certainly better than being behind the curve.”