Snowpack in Western US lower than average, believe it or not

Lorna Thackeray in the Billings Gazettte (Montana): Unless mountain snowpack starts picking up, streams across Montana could be running low next summer. Calculations by the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service released Thursday indicate that at the rate snowpack is building now, stream flows will average just 71 percent of normal through the irrigation and recreation season.

Roy Kaiser, water supply specialist at NRCS, said Western Montana could have streamflows averaging 73 percent of normal, while Eastern Montana’s are forecast to average 67 percent of normal. NRCS issues monthly stream flow forecasts the first week of each month from January through July. It attempts to estimate what streamflows will be for the period from April 1 to July 31 based on water content of snow that has accumulated in mountains that feed Montana’s river basins. The forecasts assume that precipitation will be near normal through July.

This year’s January forecast is far lower than the forecast issued at the same time last year. Kaiser advised water managers to “pay particular attention to their local area and plan for possible low streamflows in the event that mountain precipitation continues to be poor.”

Snowy as it seems in the valleys, the mountains are falling behind. Low temperatures produce drier snow and lower water content in the pack. Statewide, the water content of snow is 76 percent of average and 87 percent of last year….

A snow fed river flowing from the Iceberg Lake, In the Many Glaciers region, Glacier National Park, Montana, shot by Wing-Chi Poon, Wikmedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License