Dry year rain-wise

Idaho Department of Water Resources hydrologist Dave Hoekema talks about the water situation in Idaho and it ain't pretty. Speaker2: Today we're seeing the fifth driest April through June on record. The driest April through June is on record of 1919, 1924, 1931, 2022 and now 2025, 2024 and 2022 are the driest. So if you're looking at an analogous year, 2022 is probably our closest recent year with similar conditions. The difference is this year we had a normal snowpack, but then we only got 56% of our typical rain from April through June, and that rain is critical to flushing the snow out of the mountains, getting efficient runoff. And so we've seen all the forecasts drop below the 90th probability exceedance forecast throughout most of the state, which means the probability of that happening is less than 10%. And that just kind of is an illustration of how dry it is. We've gone from having a normal year suddenly having one of the driest springs in the record. We're expecting that by the end of this year will be really low on reservoir carryover, and not in the best place going into the following water year. And that's where the real concerns will lie. Speaker1: Farmers and ranchers facing huge challenges.