06/18/08 Unusual spring weather

When the University of Idaho's Parker Farm supervisor Roy Patten measured a 10th of an inch of snow June 10th it was the first time in more than a century that a measurable amount of snow was recorded at the farm. Throughout the state farmers and non-farmers alike have been talking about the cool, wet and windy spring that Idaho experienced and the amount of snow that still remained at some higher elevations. Blame a lot of it on a cool air mass that settled over the region. Idaho State Climatologist Russ Qualls testified earlier this year before the state legislature about climate change but he says this winter and spring weather is no indication one way or the other of climate change. QUALLS "Many places that I have looked at that often are melted out by early April or certainly by late April still had snow even up into last week. I haven't checked yet but I know that one of the stations that I got near a research site that I have up in the mountains in northern Idaho still had 15 inches of snow water equivalent. So presumably 30 or more inches of actual snow depth on the ground." That cool pattern all seems to have changed in the past couple days as more seasonable weather has finally arrived, bringing much needed heat to many fields. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott