For the week of Dec 26, 2001 - Jan 1, 2002

Persistent precipitation restores water levels

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Associated Press
and Express Staff

Persistent snows since Thanksgiving have boosted Idaho's water bank to more than average through Tuesday, setting the stage for the state's Water Supply Committee to determine whether two years of drought have ended.

A third of the way through snow accumulation season, the snowpack statewide averaged 138 percent of normal compared to only 87 percent of normal at the same time a year ago.

By the end of last February, the state’s snowpack had slipped to just 59 percent of normal.

From the season’s first major storm on Nov. 21 until Friday, the Ketchum Ranger District recorded 77 inches of snow in Ketchum. During the same time last year, only 17 inches fell.

Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain is boasting a 94-inch season total accumulation so far with a 60-inch skiing base. The average season’s total accumulation is 165 inches.

Last week, percentages were just normal on the Snake River Basin above Palisades Dam in eastern Idaho, which was 86 percent of normal last year, to 205 percent of normal in the Oakley area of south-central Idaho.

The Clearwater and Salmon river basins were both at 113 percent of normal while the Wood River Basin was at 136 percent of normal and the Boise and Weiser-Payette river basins were both above 140 percent.

The drought forced water managers statewide to draw down the reservoir system to its minimum levels by the end the summer, and the Water Supply Committee will decide at its Jan. 11 meeting just how far along the state is toward recovering.

The scientists from various government agencies will based their recommendations on snowpack and reservoir levels at the time, stream flow forecasts, weather predictions and other information to form the outlook for 2002.

 

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