Great news for Idaho’s agriculture! The Boise/Payette/Lower Snake River watershed boasts a snowpack at 145% of normal as of January 5, 2025. This bodes well for our water resources and the upcoming growing season.
By Barclay Idsal, Idaho News 6
BOISE, Idaho — Each winter, the United States Department of Agriculture tracks snowpacks across the country to better understand meteorological trends as well as how to allocate water over the course of the following year.
The Department completes this monumental endeavor via SNOTEL sites and on-the-ground snow reporting. SNOTEL, which stands for Snow Telemetry, is a way of measuring seasonal snowfall. These sites utilize pressure-sensitive snow pillows to weigh precipitation totals in various areas across the West, including Idaho.
As we go into 2025, the snowpacks across the State of Idaho look stellar. Since the first significant snowfall at Bogus Basin on October 24, we’ve seen a surplus of snow in the mountains of The Gem State, while our southern valleys have been doused in rain.
As of January 5, the snowpack for the Boise/Payette/Lower Snake River watershed is at a whopping 145% of normal. Bogus Basin, which had a late arrival of winter, is now boasting a base depth of 60 inches with a season total of over 11 feet of snow! To put that in perspective, Bogus has already received over half of its annual average snowfall (250″) in just two months.
Things get even deeper over in Oregon, with the lone exception being their coastal range (0% snow-water equivalent). However, their more prominent mountainous regions, including the areas around Mt Hood and Mt Bachelor are all over 200% of their snow-water equivalent for this time of year. Mt Hood and the mountains to its southeast are at 228% of normal, the deepest in the state. Mt Bachelor currently has a base depth of 107 inches while Mount Hood Meadows is at 110″.
The only areas of Idaho on the lower end of the snow spectrum are the western portion of the Tetons and the Clearwater River watershed. Those two regions are still above average at 101% and 107% respectively.
View the full report at https://www.kivitv.com/news/idaho-oregon-snowpacks-are-well-above-average-as-we-enter-2025?utm_source=chatgpt.com#google_vignette.
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