March 11, 2016
CapitalPress.com
3
Snowpack
Still time for storms as snow starts to melt
Oregon
February’s warm weather
reduced the snowpack in Ore-
gon’s mountains, but for now
the water supply is projected
to be near normal or more this
summer, the USDA’s Natural
Resources Conservation Ser-
vice said in its monthly bulle-
tin.
As of March 1, the snow-
pack statewide was 90 percent
of normal, NRCS analysts
reported. While warmer than
usual weather is predicted for
the next three months, inter-
mittent storms can bring more
snow to the mountains and
replenish the snowpack, the
NRCS said.
“Snowpacks are dense and
consolidated throughout the
state, meaning they are at the
tipping point between remain-
ing frozen and melting,” the
agency said. Keeping higher
temperatures and mountain
rainfall at bay for the next
few weeks could preserve the
snowpack, NRCS said.
“March and April weather
will ultimately shape the peak
of the snowpack season and set
the stage for the summer water
supply season,” NRCS said.
The Harney and John Day
basins in southeast Oregon
had the highest March 1 snow-
packs, according the bulletin.
They were measured at 107
percent and 106 percent of
normal, respectively.
The Willamette River
Basin, home to many of the
state’s agricultural operations,
had the lowest snowpack at 82
percent of normal. The Hood,
Sandy and Lower Deschutes
basins stood at 84 percent of
normal.
The igures are low even
though the basins have had
heavy precipitation all win-
ter. But much of it fell as rain
rather than snow, illustrating
the “inluence of temperature
on snowpack,” the NRCS con-
cluded.
California
The California snowpack’s
dip below normal levels could
be short-lived if an anticipated
Washington
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
NRCS hydrologist Julie Koeberle takes a snow depth and water content reading near Timberline
Lodge on Mount Hood in late December. After a great start with heavy snow, the snowpack declined a
bit in February, but the summer water outlook is still OK.
March pattern of cold and wet
storms continues through the
month.
The unusually warm after-
noons in February that has-
tened the almond blossom
and development of other tree
crops left a statewide snow
water content that was 80 per-
cent of normal as of March 3,
according to the state Depart-
ment of Water Resources.
“Our snowpack, snowfall
and precipitation were quite
a bit below average for the
month of February,” DWR
snow surveys chief Frank Geh-
rke told reporters after his third
manual survey of the season
March 1 at Phillips Station,
about 90 miles east of Sacra-
mento.
“Quite remarkably, very
clear, sunny weather has con-
tributed to a premature melt of
the snowpack,” he said. “Now
obviously we’re better than last
year, but we’re still way below
what would be considered ad-
equate for any reasonable level
of recovery at this point.”
Fortunately, with a new
month came a major change in
the weather pattern for North-
ern and Central California, as
Courtesy of Calif. Dept. of Water Resources
Frank Gehrke, right, the California Department of Water Resources
snow surveys chief, checks snow levels with the help of Rachel
Ehlers, left, and Brian Brown of the Legislative Analyst’s Ofice.
The survey was March 1 in the mountains east of Sacramento.
the National Weather Service’s
longer-range outlooks show
that periodic storms are likely
through at least mid-March.
Some of these storms could
bring lower snow levels, which
would bode well for replenish-
ing snow that has melted.
California’s major reser-
voirs could still use the boost.
Shasta Lake, the centerpiece of
the federal Central Valley Proj-
ect, was at 61 percent of capac-
ity and 83 percent of normal as
of March 3, while the State
Water Project’s Lake Oroville
was at 53 percent and 76 per-
cent, respectively, according to
the DWR.
The forecast calls for a full
water supply for irrigators
in the Yakima Basin, but ex-
perts say that prediction could
change as warm weather melts
the snowpack in the Cascade
Mountains about a month ear-
lier than desired.
A lack of signiicant snow-
fall in February is another
contributing factor, they said.
The chances of signiicant
new snowstorms are also slim.
If that scenario continues
to play out, some irrigators in
the Yakima Basin could have
less than normal water supply
in August.
Statewide snowpack was
100 percent of normal on
March 1, down from 109 per-
cent on Feb. 1 and 120 percent
on Jan. 1, said Scott Pattee,
water supply specialist at the
Washington Snow Survey Of-
ice of the USDA Natural Re-
sources Conservation Service
in Mount Vernon.
While the snowpack is
good, its water content is 10
percent greater than normal
for this time of year, Pattee
said. That’s from more rain
than snow and will hasten
runoff, he said. Temperatures
have been 5 to 15 degrees
above normal for the last
month or two, he said.
“If we continue these warm
temperatures, (mid and high-
er-level) snowpack will ripen
and start melting sooner and
faster than normal and than we
want it to,” he said.
Snowpack below 3,000
feet already has melted and
everything below 4,000 feet
likely will be gone by April
1, he said. Peak snowpack is
usually about April 1 but this
year it is probably about now,
he said.
There were a couple 4- to
5-inch snowfalls in the Cas-
cades in February, but that’s
not much and chances of any
more large snowfalls are not
good, he said.
Irrigators in the farm-rich
Yakima and Kittitas valleys
usually depend on snow-
pack runoff for April. As of
March 1, the Spokane Basin
snowpack was 88 percent of
normal. The upper Columbia
(Okanogan and Methow riv-
ers) was 122 percent. The cen-
tral Columbia (Chelan, Entiat
and Wenatchee) was 118 per-
cent, the upper Yakima was
95 and the lower Yakima was
102. The lower Snake was 98
percent of normal and the low-
er Columbia was 94 percent.
South Puget Sound (from
Cascade crest to lowlands)
snowpack was 95 percent,
central Puget Sound was 88,
north Puget Sound 100 and the
Olympic snowpack was 103.
The lowest reading was the
Skykomish Basin at 62 per-
cent and the highest was the
Methow at 135.
Idaho
A warm, dry February has
Idaho mountain snowpacks
prematurely poised to melt, the
state’s water experts say.
Ron Abramovich, Idaho
water supply specialist with
USDA’s Natural Resources
Conservation Service, said
Idaho’s snowpack has “rip-
ened” about a month ahead of
normal, due to above-normal
February temperatures.
Total snow-moisture con-
tent wasn’t affected much
at higher elevations, but the
snowpack has become more
compact, requiring less energy
to melt, Abramovich said. He
said snowpack densities end-
ed February at 36 to 38 per-
cent moisture, compared with
a normal content of 30 to 34
percent for the start of March.
Snow starts to melt when the
density reaches 40 to 45 per-
cent.
Abramovich said low-el-
evation and valley snow has
melted, saturating soils, which
should result in more runoff
from the remaining snowpack
entering streams and reser-
voirs.
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