Idaho’s Snowpack Makes A Slight Recovery

Improvements are made with small first steps, and that’s what we’ve seen out of the Idaho snowpack over the past month.

Erin Whorton with NRCS said Idaho’s pack improved slightly from record low levels to near record low levels in some parts of the state.  The statewide snowpack is currently around 50% of average.  And with the exception of the Big Lost, Little Lost area around Borah Peak, no Basins across the state are on par where they should be this time of year.

While the snowpacks are well off where they should be for the final weeks of winter, Whorton said the total Water Year Precipitation numbers look good.

“Overall, Idaho is looking near normal to above normal north of the Snake River and east of the Snake River," Whorton said.  "If we're looking to the southern portion of the state, that area has below normal total water precipitation.  But everywhere else is about near normal.  And then like the Hailey, Carey, MacKay in the area, all the towns kind of in that central region actually have above normal total water precipitation. They just got a lot of moisture in that late December storm cycle.”

As she looks back on the winter, what sticks out to Whorton is that Idaho’s missing its low and mid elevation snowpack, which she said is very unusual.

"So really below about 7,000 feet in Idaho. There's just virtually no snow on the ground. except for, you know, what's fallen in this last week period. And so I think what folks can expect is that we're going to have lower stream flows this spring. It obviously depends on how quickly the high elevation snowpack melts, but we'll probably see a reduction in stream flow this spring and then we'll probably see the stream flow start to taper earlier in the summer."

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