Snowpack below normal

COEUR d'ALENE — A dry January across most of Idaho left the Panhandle with below-normal snowpack and increased drought worries.

"Notably, the Coeur d’Alene-St. Joe basins received only 38% of normal precipitation for January," according to the Idaho Water Supply Report from the Natural Resources Conservation Service released Tuesday.

Nine snow monitoring sites in the Panhandle recorded their driest or second-driest January, the report said.

"Unfortunately, the dry January eroded the ‘lead’ we had on above-normal precipitation conditions across all basins," the report said.

The report said that combined with below-normal soil moisture, these low total water year precipitation percentiles suggest "we should be concerned about dryland farming conditions and continuation or worsening of drought conditions in northern Idaho."

Peter Youngblood, NRCS hydrologist, said a number of records were broken at snow-monitoring sites for low precipitation in January.

The mountain snowpack is not where it should be this time of year, which is cause for concern.

"We usually get more snow," he said.

As of Feb. 1, the snowpack in North Idaho basins is below normal, ranging from 88% to 92% of normal.

Streamflow is also forecasted to be below normal in North Idaho.

Temperatures remained near or colder than normal throughout most of Idaho in January except in North Idaho and in the lower Boise River and Payette River sub-basins.

"The northern Idaho basins had a large rain-on-snow event in mid-January, but thankfully the snowpack was cold enough that the rain refroze within the snowpack and didn’t cause (snow water equivalent) losses even at lower elevations. Elsewhere, these cold temperatures helped preserve the snowpack during the dry spells throughout January," it said.

"Cooler than normal temperature conditions are predicted throughout Idaho in February," the report said. "Cool, wet conditions are favored for the remainder of winter."

Lakes in the Panhandle range from 45 to 100% of normal storage. Lake Coeur d’Alene is at 46%, Lake Pend Oreille is at 97%, and Priest Lake at 91%.

Youngblood said the snowpack season is not at its peak yet, so it's too early to tell how it will play out.

"There are still a couple months left in the accumulation season," he said.

One positive sign is the forecast for above-normal precipitation and below-normal temperatures.

"That really bodes well for snowpack," he said.