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After hard winter, Oregon snowpack rebounds

In this Jan. 3, 2017, file photo, the snow line on the Coburg Hills hovers above the Willamette Valley north of Eugene, Ore. (Brian Davies / Associated Press)

PORTLAND – The average statewide snowpack for Oregon is well above normal for March after a harsh winter that featured heavy snow across much of the state.

However, hydrologists warn that an early thaw could quash hopes for above-average summer stream flows.

Snowpack levels as of March 1 were 138 percent of normal, according to numbers released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The service conducts the surveys monthly during the water year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, said Scott Oviatt, a snow survey supervisory hydrologist for the USDA service.

The last time Oregon’s snowpack was well above normal on March 1 was in 2008, when it was 157 percent of normal. Last year, the snowpack was 94 percent of normal at the end of February.

The news came as a boon for farmers, ranchers and irrigators who have weathered several years of drought in much of eastern Oregon. If the weather remains cool and the snow doesn’t melt until late spring, above-average stream levels could replenish drinking water supplies and also mean good news for migrating salmon, Oviatt said.

“Snow accumulation during February was twice the normal amount at many monitoring locations,” he said.

Last year, excitement about near-average snowpack levels evaporated when unusually warm April weather melted the snow early, depriving farmers, salmon and reservoir operators of late-season runoff they needed.

All basins in the state have received well-above-average precipitation for the 2017 water year.

Lake County and Goose Lake basins have gotten the most, at 152 percent of average, while Mt. Hood, Sandy and the Lower Deschutes basins have had 111 percent of normal precipitation, the service said.

Lake Owyhee Reservoir, near the Idaho border, is now at 128 percent of average after several years of water levels that were well below average. The lake is now storing more than 500,000 acre-feet of water for the first time since 2012, Oviatt said.

Heavy snow has also meant reservoirs in Malheur and Baker counties are the fullest they’ve been in years, he added.

The reservoirs “aren’t near the normal or average levels, but they’re higher than they have been in the past,” he said. “It is good for farmers and irrigators.”