Concerning Mountain West Snow Pack Levels

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Many areas of the west have experienced warmer temperatures than normal and drier conditions. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey discusses some of the areas in the West that so far this winter report near to below normal mountain snowpack and water equivalency levels.

Rippey… “ Unfortunately, the remainder of the west is in pretty rough shape. If you look at the map, showing percent of average snowpack at this point in the season, and that effectively means that these December temperatures, more than 10 degrees above average, have just eaten into the snowpack potential. And also for some of the inland areas, we just haven't seen that moisture transport beyond the Pacific Coast states in the Western Great Basin. And moisture has had trouble working its way eastward. So if you look at the four Corners region, points east and south from there, snowpack is well under 50% of average. That less than 50% of average also extends to Western Utah, the northern Great Basin, including Northern Nevada and also much of Oregon as well. Even extending into the southern tier of Washington state. We desperately need a colder weather pattern. We'd like to see the storminess continue to bolster some of those abysmal early season snowpack numbers.”

Again, that’s USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey.