This article was published on: 01/8/18 2:24 PM
By Kyle Gorman, South Central Region Manager for Oregon Water Resources Department
As of today, the snowpack at the basin’s snow telemetered sites are reading 37% of average water content. We started off November with a spectacular snow pack and December has left us way behind. Although we can recover in January and February, it will take a lot of storms and moisture just to get back to normal or average. “It isn’t over til its over” but we really need some snow in the mountains right now….lots and lots of snow. The forecast for the mountains is only chance of snow for the next 7 days; that is not enough. Three Creeks SNOTEL is only 20% of average for water equivalent and this is the site that gauges snow pack for Whychus Creek. We need 6.3 inches of water equivalent to get the snowpack to average. The precipitation for the water year is 81 percent of average which is better but not where we want to be.
