NorthwestFebruary 13, 2004

Snow continues to pile up in the mountains high above the Clearwater and Salmon rivers in amounts putting Idaho and its neighbors on track for an average winter.

The next two months will determine if the trend will hold.

"If the storms don't come in, we will end up peaking below normal," said Ron Abramovich, a hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service at Boise.

Idaho, northeastern Oregon and eastern Washington get most of their moisture during the winter and depend on snowpacks to keep irrigation waters flowing and river flows and temperatures safe for fish.

The snowpacks and resulting runoff helps generate power at hydro electric dams and also provides whitewater rafters and jet boaters with spring and summer recreation.

The Clearwater River basin has a snowpack holding 103 percent of its average water for this time of year. The Salmon River snowpack is at 95 percent and the Panhandle is 100 percent of average.

Stream flow forecasts call for runoff of most streams in the Clearwater basin to be 95 to 110 percent of average.

The forecasts predict stream flows from April through July. The Selway basin is the snowiest with 112 percent of its average amount of snow and the Selway's runoff is forecast to be 98 percent of average.

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Hydrologists are predicting stream flow on the Clearwater River, measured at the Spalding gauge, to be 111 percent of average from April to September.

The Salmon River flows at White Bird should be 99 percent of average this spring and summer, according to the forecasts.

The Owyhee Basin in southwestern Idaho has a snowpack that measures 145 percent of average and the Bear River basin snowpack 85 percent of average. Because of several years of drought in the southeastern Idaho basin, forecasters are expecting stream flows there to be just 13 percent of average.

'We need several wet years to really saturate and prime the soil," said Abramovich.

The mountains in Washington are holding a statewide snowpack measured at 102 percent of normal. The Lower Snake River basin has a snowpack that is 110 percent of average. The forecast for stream flow on the Snake River at Lower Granite dam is forecast to be 98 percent of average from April through September. The Grand Ronde River stream flow, measured at Troy Ore., should be 108 percent of normal, according to forecasts from the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

The snowpack in northeast Oregon is 115 percent of normal. Stream flows for the Imnaha River at Imnaha are forecast to be 98 percent of average, the Lostine River 103 percent of normal and the Wallowa River near Joseph 98 percent of average.

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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com

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