A preview of the current water year

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By Jay Michaels

Story Published: Feb 3, 2010 at 9:47 PM CDT

Story Updated: Feb 3, 2010 at 10:39 PM CDT

02/03/10

The amount of snow that falls in western Wyoming plays a big part in determining how much runoff we'll have here in southern Idaho. Right now that snow pack is just under two-thirds of average for this date in the water accumulation year.

Michael Beus, Water Operations Manager says, “We've not had any extended periods of really dry weather, but we can't seem to exceed 60 percent of average accumulation rates.”

The good news is that the upper Snake River reservoir system is 77 percent full right now. Beus says the bureau of reclamation can support the same level of stream flows we've seen so far this winter until the reservoirs get close to completely filling up, or irrigation demand begins.

He says, “A really dry supply on the watershed. The difficulty is the watershed is much bigger than the storage system.”

Beus says our last really wet month for snowpack accumulation was October. He says while the weather forecast should be updated with January’s precipitation figures any day now; it's still uncertain if there will be much more precipitation in the next two months.

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