04/01/08 March storms help snowpack

The storms kept on coming in March, bringing rain and snow to Idaho and temperatures were cool. MORRISEY "The good news is the snowpack has finally caught up to normal." Phil Morrisey of the NRCS Snow Survey says most of the basins in Idaho have near normal or above normal snowpack today. The Big Lost basin at 92 percent of normal snow is the lowest in the state while the Clearwater basin at 124 percent of normal is the highest. Irrigators in southern Idaho also got a boost from Mother Nature in the upper Snake Basin above Palisades Reservoir. MORRISEY "They received 125 percent of the average March precipitation so at this point they're 102 percent of average snowpack in the upper Snake." Unlike the past several years Morrisey says late summer streamflows will be adequate this year especially along the southern Idaho border where the snowpack at the end of February was below normal. MORRISEY "Bruneau and Owyhee snowpack basins are 110 percent so for an area that was really low to start the winter they definitely made a comeback across that southern region of the state." The only potential problem; a sudden April warm-up could cause some flooding along the Weiser River and some rivers in north Idaho. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott