Spokane River’s snowpack is headed downstream

A lot of water poured into the Spokane River over the past week, sending the river to levels normally seen during spring runoff.

It didn’t reach record highs or cause the sort of damage seen in North Idaho or Western Washington, but it still came with a significant downside.

“We’re draining our battery of water in the mountains,” said Jule Schultz, waterkeeper at the Spokane Riverkeeper. “We need that battery for summer flows.”

Snowpack data recorded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service confirms as much, with measuring sites in the Spokane drainage all showing snow levels well below normal. The entire drainage was sitting at 44% of its median snowpack Friday morning.

This comes just a few months after part of the river went completely dry and follows what scientists have dubbed the warmest fall on record in the Northwest.

Any skier will tell you the battery wasn’t all that full to begin with, since chairlift season is off to a sluggish start.

Chris Donley, the eastern region fish program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that might have helped limit the damage from the atmospheric river that brought warm and wet conditions to the region.

He recalled worse floods in the mid-1990s that came after the region got a lot of November snow.

“This was the same scenario except we didn’t have all the snowpack,” he said. “We really kind of got lucky.”

And there’s still time for the basin’s snowpack levels to recover, he added.

“January, February and even into early April are really when we generate snowpack,” Donley said. “Things could change in a hurry if the temperatures drop a little bit.”

In the meantime, high water is moving things around in the river, possibly bringing fresh gravel to potential spawning beds for trout or churning up a buffet of worms and other food.

High water means it’s a bad time to try to fish the river. Ambitious paddlers have been out, though anyone taking that risk ought to do so with care. Schultz said even the placid sections will surprise anyone who tries to navigate them.

“It can be surprising how much water is flowing even if it doesn’t look that way,” Schultz said.

There is always one safe option, though.

“It’s a good time to look at the river in awe,” Schultz said.