6-30 FB Perfect Snowmelt

  Is it possible to get too much of a good thing?

 Most of the time rain snow and water in general are good for Idaho. It turns out that in a record year of snow we are getting ideal conditions for snowmelt according to Ron Abramovich  who is  a snow specialist for the NRCS.  “Usually it is better to have too much water than too little. You cannot make it when you are in the dry years.  We are still way above average for this time of the year so we see the Owyhee, Bruno, Salmon Falls Creek, at this high a level this late, that means that other streams and rivers in Idaho are going to follow a similar trend once the high snow starts melting so this year we just have to deal with it and how it is going to come off. The problem is that the additional moisture we are still receiving in May and into June now. So if it would just stop raining in the high country then we could get through this year. The temperatures that we have been having the warm-cold are ideal for melting the snowpack gradually. We have seen moderate melt rate so it makes it easier for water managers to manage this water. When those temperatures here in the Boise Valley start turning into the 80s, we are going to see those melt rates increase even more. The  rivers will continue to rise but we are not passed that threshold to where we don’t have enough snow in the mountains to stop feeding the streams, there is still plenty of snow in the high country. The other part is that our June precipitation, we have already received our June allotment of precipitation in the first half of the month of June and we still have the second half to go.