ID snowpack dropping; waters supply should be OK

Idaho's snowpack has shrunk by at least 20 percent since Jan. 1, but there should still be adequate water for state needs this year, the Idaho Water Supply Committee said Thursday.

The committee is made up of state and national experts who have an interest in Idaho water.

As the snowpack melts, it funnels into reservoirs and streams where it is used for everything from irrigation to drinking water.

Idaho Department of Water Resources hydrologist Steve Burrel said snowpack levels statewide are at about 80 percent of the average amount, a decrease from January when levels were normal.

Warm, dry weather during the second half of January and the first two weeks of February caused the snowpack to shrink.

"Without the normal precipitation, we're losing ground," Burrel said, adding there should still be sufficient water.

In southern Idaho, the mountain snowpack is critical to the health of the region's drought-prone agricultural industry.

Burrel said the snowpack south of the Snake River is far below normal but the area shouldn't worry about the state curtailing water use because there is enough water in reservoirs.

"It's fine for supply but it's going to make a lot of people nervous," Burrel said. "Think snow."

According to Ron Abramovich, a hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an inversion caused record-high temperatures in the state.

Snowpack across the state ranges from 72 percent of average in Coeur d'Alene basin to 115 percent in the Bruneau Basin in southern Idaho, Abramovich said.

In December, the snowpack in mountainous northern Idaho was 5 percent above the state average, but the area is not seeing an increase in the amount of snow.

Abramovich said the mountaintop snow isn't melting, but snowfall isn't keeping pace with what the state needs.

"The high snows are not there this year like last year," he said.

According to the National Weather Service, the Clearwater Basin and the Panhandle region are expected to produce snow melt that is only around 10 percent below normal.

A National Weather Service official said there is likely little chance the snowpack will improve before spring melting begins because the major snow accumulation months are almost over.

Weather Service hydrologist Jay Breidenbach said Idaho weather for February and March will probably be colder than normal but that doesn't necessarily mean more snow.

In 2008, state and federal hydrologists say, snow storms that battered the state between mid-December and February built snowpack levels that were above 30-year averages in mountain ranges from Coeur d'Alene in north Idaho to Ketchum in the central part of the state.