Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Snowpacks Exceed Longtime Average

From Staff And Wire Reports

It has not snowed much in recent weeks, but Idaho’s mountain snowpacks still exceed the longtime average for this time of year.

“This looks like the best January snowpack we’ve seen since 1986,” said Phil Morrisey, hydrologist with the snow survey division of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Around the state, snowpacks are heaviest in the Henrys Fork and Teton river basins of eastern Idaho, Morrisey said. In those basins, snowpacks are 40 percent to 50 percent heavier than average.

Snowpacks in the Snake River drainage upstream of Palisades Reservoir are 3 percent larger than average.

Elsewhere, snowpacks are: 20 percent above in the Salmon Falls Creek drainage, 16 percent above in the Big Wood River drainage, 9 percent above in the Little Wood River drainage, 25 percent above average in the Owyhee River drainage, 20 percent above in the Bruneau River basin, 4 percent above in the Big Lost River drainage, 2 percent above in the Little Lost River drainage, 11 percent below average in the Goose and Trapper creek basins.

Snowpacks are thinnest in the Bear Lake drainage in Idaho’s southeastern corner, Morrisey said.