4-18 FB March Madness

 MARCH SNOWPACK LEVELS VARY WIDELY ACROSS STATE

Hydrologists from the Natural Resources Conservation Service used the term “March Madness” to describe the results from the latest snow survey which shows a wide range of precipitation levels and snowpack amounts across Idaho. During March, storm after storm moved through central and northern Idaho but left parts of southern Idaho dry. “ March madness means snowpacks increased or decreased depending upon which part of the state you were in.Diverse conditions would be an understatement to describe the present snowpack situation in Idaho,” said Jeff Anderson, NRCS Hydrologist in Boise. “Since March 1, we’ve measured one of the greatest one-month changes in snowpack on record.”

According to snow survey and Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) measurements, the snowpack either increased or decreased depending on the area. Warm weather melted some of the low and mid elevation snowpack in the southern Idaho basins of Bear, Blackfoot, Bruneau, and Owyhee, decreasing the snowpack up to 22 percent. With little March snowfall across southern Idaho many of those basins have snowpacks in the dismal range of 40 to 60% of normal. Many areas north of the Snake River Plain received above average precipitation and snowpacks increased up to 34 percent.