Precipitation

Danny Tappa is a Hydrologist and Data Collection Officer with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Idaho Snow Survey. He talked with us about the importance of snowpack in a year that, thus far, hasn’t seen enough precipitation. The major ramifications are widespread water shortages. So if we were to the spring this year that we got last year, we would see even more water shortages than we had last year.

The odds of seeing another spring like last year are hopefully quite low, last year was an exceptionally dry spring.

There are some current indications that the weather pattern is changing back to a more moist, active pattern,” said Tappa.

Daniel Hoke, is the Deputy Watermaster for the Boise River out of Water District 63. Hoke says they keep a close eye on the conditions.

“First thing we do every day, we check the weather, and we check the snowpack, we check the reservoir levels, the natural flow levels and the reservoir percentages. All that is the first thing we monitor every single day,” said Hoke.

“We’re rooting for a wet March, but having the low carryover and the low, below average snowpack at this point… it is something that we need to monitor and be on top of going forward.”

Could there be early water shut offs again this year?

“It might be a little too early to say on that, but it’s definitely a potential for that. Like I said with low carry over from last year, the reservoirs are below average, the snowpack’s below average right now, so if things do not improve that’s a possibility, yes,” said Hoke.