04/02/07 Dry, warm March, less April snowpack

This has been a dryer than normal winter across most of Idaho and it's reflected in the snowpack numbers. MORRISEY "Our snowpack here is down ten to 15 percentage points from just a month ago." Phil Morrisey of the NRCS Snow Survey team says the dry, warm weather of March didn't help our overall snow accumulation. MORRISEY "The highest snowpack is up in the Panhandle but its only 82 percent of normal for this time of year. And over here in the Little Wood Basin out by Carey, that's lowest in the state at 41 percent of normal, so that area dropped over 20 percent from a month ago." Snowpack levels in most of the other basins in Idaho are 60 to 70 percent of normal. That being said irrigators with rights to reservoir water should be okay this summer thanks to an ample carryover from last year. MORRISEY "But if you're looking at natural river flows without the benefit of reservoirs the summer forecast is going to come out pretty low this year. We would expect this summer's runoff to be maybe only half to 60 percent of average." One problem that occurred last year, spring flooding, shouldn't be a concern this year. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott