01/02/08 Late December storms boost snowpack

It was pretty dismal until the final week of December when snow finally fell on most of Idaho. Ron Abromovich of the NRCS Snow Survey says the Clearwater, Salmon and Weiser River basins now have snowpack levels slightly above normal thanks to late December moisture. ABROMOVICH "Boise basin is up to 89 percent of average, Big Wood is 93, Little Wood 82 percent of average, Big Lost is 79, Little Lost Birch Creek are 84 percent of average, Henry's Fork and Tetons are 95 percent of average, the snowpack in the Snake Basin above Palisades in Wyoming mostly is 85 percent of average, the low elevations Willow Blackfoot Portneuf basins are 70 percent of average, Oakley basin is 84 percent, Salmon Falls is 77, Bruneau is 74, the Owyhee is 62, Bear River is 67 percent of average for today." Based on past numbers Abromovich says it's very important to be at or above normal snowpack on January first. ABROMOVICH "Once you're below normal it's hard to recover back to normal by April first. Once we get to February one that pattern becomes more dominate so we want to be normal or better by February one." Forecasters say more moisture is on the way later this week. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott