04/11/07 New snowpack, streamflow outlook

Washington Ag April 11, 2007 Something happened to Washington's snow pack between March and April. Patttee: "Well, I guess you could say a lot of it is water under the bridge. Unfortunately the warm and wet conditions we experienced in March brought a lot of our snowpack off." That's Scott Pattee, water supply specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He says as of April 1st the statewide snowpack was at 98 percent of average, down 22 percent from March 1st. Streamflows were reduced by as much as 18 percent from last month but Pattee doesn't see any major problem for irrigators right now. Pattee: "But for the most part I think we are still gonna see near average stream flows throughout the spring and summer. We might tail off a little bit early this fall. It is all going to depend on what kind of weather we have from here on out." Because of the snowpack and melt-off water cycle, the April 1st report is historically the most accurate assessment of the state of water in Washington On the Westside snowpack averages included 110 percent for North Puget Sound river basins and 107 percent for the Central Puget. Snowpack along the east slope of the Cascades included the Yakima area with 89 percent, Wenatchee at 85, the Spokane River Basin at 77 percent and the Walla Walla Basin snowpack at 71 percent of average. I'm Bob Hoff.