Threat Of Drought Eases Across Idaho Wet January Weather Boosts Snowpacks Nearer To Normal

After dry weather in November and December had people talking about another El Nino-caused drought, a wet January boosted mountain snowpacks and gave most of Idaho renewed promise of a normal water year.

“The 1997-98 snow season is looking much better than it started,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service said in its new “Idaho Basin Outlook Report.”

“With 40 percent of the snow season still to come, concerns about inadequate water supplies are fading as a result of the good reservoir carry-over storage and near-normal snow levels.”

The report was issued at Thursday’s meeting of the Idaho Water Supply Committee, which includes representatives from state and federal agencies that monitor water conditions and flood or drought threats.

January precipitation ranged from near normal in the Clearwater River basin to more than 200 percent of average at some central and southern Idaho measuring stations.

Overall, precipitation in January was 160 percent of average across southern Idaho, 145 percent across the middle part of Idaho and 120 percent in the Panhandle and Salmon River basins.

That January rain and snowfall increased precipitation for the water year, which began in October, to 84 percent to 93 percent of average. At the dry end are high-desert streams south of the Snake River, while at the wet end is the Bear River basin of southeastern Idaho.

The January wetness increased snowpacks 20 percent to 40 percent in southern Idaho, to a range of 85 percent to 100 percent of average, and boosted snowpacks 5 percent to 20 percent in the Panhandle, to a range of 75 percent to 80 percent of average.

The Boise River basin was the wettest, with snow-water content increasing the sixth-most on record since 1961. Snow-water content was lowest in the Camas-Beaver Creek and Fish Creek basins, the Little Wood, Little Lost, Big Lost, Panhandle and Clearwater basins.

Besides being wet, January also was relatively warm across much of Idaho.

The month’s average temperatures of 38.9 degrees in Boise and 33.1 degrees in Pocatello were the second- and fourth-warmest, respectively, since measurements began in 1940. Lewiston’s average temperature of 36.9 degrees was 3.3 degrees above normal.