It's snow wonderful

COEUR d’ALENE — When it snows a lot, Steve Stuebner is happy.

For the past few weeks, he’s been very happy.

“We have just been getting hammered in Idaho,” said an area forecaster for opensnow.com. “It’s a huge turnaround for us.”

Stuebner said a series of snowstorms have given a big boost to North Idaho’s low snowpack in the mountains and created what he called the prime skiing conditions.

He said, since mid-February, nearly 100 inches of snow has fallen in the region's mountains. Snowpack in Bonner and Boundary counties improved by 15 points in just 10 days.

“That will benefit everything throughout the year,” he said. 

Last month, basins in North Idaho had or were near record-low snowpack, which can hurt fisheries as summer streamflow is lower and warmer.

“Everybody knows we had a slow start. We had rain on snow early, that was just ugly,” Stuebner said. “We just really turned the corner with the storms we had, especially in the second half of the season.”

Skiers are heading to the hills.

Gus Colburn with Silver Mountain said the resort has received 44 inches in the last two weeks. That gave Silver 88 inches at the summit, 57 at the lodge. For the season, Silver has received 191 inches at the summit.

“Conditions are the best they've been all season. Coverage is great across the mountain and we have 100% of our trails open,” he said. 

Taylor Prather with Schweitzer Ski Resort also said conditions are nothing short of fantastic. They received 11 inches Monday and another 8 inches overnight to reach 99 inches at the summit and 199 for the season.

“It’s hands-down the best skiing and riding of the season,” Prather said.

Matt Sawyer, with Lookout Pass Ski and Recreation Area, said conditions are some of the best of this winter season. He said Lookout has received 91 inches over the past two weeks. 

"Guests are finding the conditions to their liking, and many have just started to get their turns in for the season, while the regulars are all-too-happy to carve up our corduroy or put their signature on untracked powder runs," he said.

Sawyer said there is a renewed energy at the mountain as a result of all the fresh snow. 

"Winter is indeed finally here," he said.

Climatologist Cliff Harris said 7.8 inches of snow fell in Coeur d’Alene on Monday, nearly doubling the March 4 record of 4.2 inches set in 1917. 

In the first four days of March, it has snowed 11 inches in Coeur d'Alene, well above the average snowfall for March of 6.5 inches and already more than the 10.1 inches that fell in the entire month of February. For the season, Coeur d’Alene has received 47.7 inches, 21 coming in February and March.

David Hoekema, hydrologist with with Idaho Department of Water Resources, wrote Tuesday that Idaho saw its largest jump in snowpack last week, particularly over the weekend.  

“Farmers in the Big Lost Basin expressed relief with large snow accumulations in their basin last weekend,” he wrote.

Hoekema said North Idaho received large amounts of snow, leading to only the Clearwater basins having snowpack within the severe drought percentiles.

“Everywhere else in northern Idaho snowpack has been improved to moderate drought or better conditions,” he wrote.

Stuebner said things should be drier until this weekend. He expects more snow in North Idaho starting Sunday and continuing into next week. The mountains could see more than 20 inches of snow between Sunday and Wednesday.

The snowpack usually peaks about April 1.

“It looks really good,” Stuebner said. 

He urged skiers to take to the slopes, saying it likely won’t get any better than it is now.

“This is going to be really fun,” Stuebner said.

    A skier glides down a run at Schweitzer Ski Resort this week.
  

    A skier enjoys the snowy slopes of Schweitzer Ski Resort this week.