Panhandle lags in snowpack totals

SANDPOINT — Shocker.

The Panhandle currently has some of the lowest snowpack percentages in the state, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Boise.

“Oddly, one of the lowest snowpacks in the state is North Idaho’s Panhandle region, which usually gets plenty of snow,” said Ron Abramovich, water supply specialist with NRCS Idaho. “A few of the long-term Panhandle snow courses with data back almost 80 years show near record-low snowpack levels.”

Snowpacks range from 60-110 percent of median for most Idaho basins, but percentages in the Panhandle are 50-60 percent of median, NRCS’s water supply outlook report for February said.

The lower-than-normal snowpack numbers are the result of not only low amounts of snow accumulation, but also abnormally high temperatures and unseasonable rain that resulted in the snowmelt, particularly in the third week of January, NRCS said. This melt was noticeable when many streams and rivers in the Panhandle briefly increased their flows in late January.

The service said the region’s natural lakes are in good shape and just waiting for the first major runoff event of the year to get more water in the system.

Forecasted stream flows show a great deal of variability across the Panhandle, with the Lake Pend Oreille inflow and Clark Fork River projected to be slightly above normal at 106 percent.

Most other Panhandle streams are projected to have 75 percent of their average flows, except the Kootenai at 92 percent, according to NRCS.

January mountain precipitation was below normal across the state, the water report said.

However, the report further states that the potential remains for an atmospheric river, also known as the Pineapple Express. That would bring abundant moisture to the West Coast and into central and northern Idaho.