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Is Winter Really Gone?
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The answer is at your feet
By JOYCE EDLEFSEN
jedlefsen@uvsj.com
If you thought it was a long winter in Rexburg, imagine how folks in Island Park are feeling with about 2 feet of snow still on the ground.
The radishes aren't coming up in their gardens.
As the last dirty piles of snow melt from the shady north sides of Rexburg and St. Anthony buildings, yards in Island Park and even farm fields east of Ashton remain buried in snow.
It will be some time in the higher elevations before puffs of dust can be seen as tractors work fields to get ready for planting.
At White Elephant, a Natural Resource Conservation Service SNOTEL snowpack measuring site at 7,710 feet elevation in Island Park, the snow level Tuesday was 67 inches, a drop of about 6 inches in the past week.
Another Island Park SNOTEL site at 6,290 feet has 26.7 inches of snow, 5 1/2 inches less than a week ago.
The measurements show the snow is melting, and it has so far melted slowly – as water managers had hoped to avoid flooding. But there is still quite a bit of snow still to melt.
Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist Mike Beus said the spring snowmelt is "not as scary as some of the numbers might make it appear."
Runoff is just starting, Beus said.
"Rivers started to rise yesterday," he said Tuesday afternoon. Flows were up on the Snake River at Flagg Ranch in Wyoming, high up the water-supply chain, and also on the Snake at Alpine, Wyo., near the start of Palisades Reservoir backwaters. Willow Creek near the Ririe Dam also showed an increase in flow.
The water is rising, but only to the levels it typically averages about two weeks ago, Beus said.
Traveling from Rexburg to Island Park is like moving from spring to winter. People still are reporting good spring skiing at Harriman State Park, where trail grooming has stopped. A project to install bird-nesting platforms has been delayed as ice remains on the lakes, the assistant park manager said.
While farmers are plowing fields in Parker, farmers in Ashton still see wide expanses of white where they may eventually see seed plants and grain.
At Squirrel Meadows east of Ashton, a Forest Service employee measured the snow depth at the Forest Service cabin at 4 feet Monday, though it had dropped about a foot over the weekend, said Ashton-Island Park Ranger Adrienne Keller.
The Henry's Fork River in St. Anthony changed from clear to somewhat cloudy over the past couple of days, and water levels rose slightly.
But the cloudy water hasn't stopped a river full of wading anglers trying their luck with spring fishing in the river west of St. Anthony.
From a water manager's point of view, the spring thaw has gone well so far, but if temperatures turn very warm, such as into the 80s or 90s, runoff could speed up and river levels rise quickly and demand for water could increase, Beus said.
The slow-to-appear spring has created a good situation for water managers, keeping demand for irrigation water low to nonexistent in high elevations such as Ashton.
"Last year at this time there was strong demand for water from the Magic Valley to Ashton," Beus said.
And his agency's predictions for last year's water supply turned out to be faulty. Instead of having an adequate supply that would have required drawing down the upstream reservoirs such as Jackson Lake just for flood control, it turned out that the prediction was 400,000 acre feet off. That's how much more water had to be taken from Jackson Lake to supply irrigation needs farther down the valley.
"The precipitation stopped, and there was reduced supply and increased demand," he said.
With runoff just beginning, this year's water supply appears to be adequate, but, as always, time and Mother Nature will tell.
The radishes aren't coming up in their gardens.
As the last dirty piles of snow melt from the shady north sides of Rexburg and St. Anthony buildings, yards in Island Park and even farm fields east of Ashton remain buried in snow.
It will be some time in the higher elevations before puffs of dust can be seen as tractors work fields to get ready for planting.
At White Elephant, a Natural Resource Conservation Service SNOTEL snowpack measuring site at 7,710 feet elevation in Island Park, the snow level Tuesday was 67 inches, a drop of about 6 inches in the past week.
Another Island Park SNOTEL site at 6,290 feet has 26.7 inches of snow, 5 1/2 inches less than a week ago.
The measurements show the snow is melting, and it has so far melted slowly – as water managers had hoped to avoid flooding. But there is still quite a bit of snow still to melt.
Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist Mike Beus said the spring snowmelt is "not as scary as some of the numbers might make it appear."
Runoff is just starting, Beus said.
"Rivers started to rise yesterday," he said Tuesday afternoon. Flows were up on the Snake River at Flagg Ranch in Wyoming, high up the water-supply chain, and also on the Snake at Alpine, Wyo., near the start of Palisades Reservoir backwaters. Willow Creek near the Ririe Dam also showed an increase in flow.
The water is rising, but only to the levels it typically averages about two weeks ago, Beus said.
Traveling from Rexburg to Island Park is like moving from spring to winter. People still are reporting good spring skiing at Harriman State Park, where trail grooming has stopped. A project to install bird-nesting platforms has been delayed as ice remains on the lakes, the assistant park manager said.
While farmers are plowing fields in Parker, farmers in Ashton still see wide expanses of white where they may eventually see seed plants and grain.
At Squirrel Meadows east of Ashton, a Forest Service employee measured the snow depth at the Forest Service cabin at 4 feet Monday, though it had dropped about a foot over the weekend, said Ashton-Island Park Ranger Adrienne Keller.
The Henry's Fork River in St. Anthony changed from clear to somewhat cloudy over the past couple of days, and water levels rose slightly.
But the cloudy water hasn't stopped a river full of wading anglers trying their luck with spring fishing in the river west of St. Anthony.
From a water manager's point of view, the spring thaw has gone well so far, but if temperatures turn very warm, such as into the 80s or 90s, runoff could speed up and river levels rise quickly and demand for water could increase, Beus said.
The slow-to-appear spring has created a good situation for water managers, keeping demand for irrigation water low to nonexistent in high elevations such as Ashton.
"Last year at this time there was strong demand for water from the Magic Valley to Ashton," Beus said.
And his agency's predictions for last year's water supply turned out to be faulty. Instead of having an adequate supply that would have required drawing down the upstream reservoirs such as Jackson Lake just for flood control, it turned out that the prediction was 400,000 acre feet off. That's how much more water had to be taken from Jackson Lake to supply irrigation needs farther down the valley.
"The precipitation stopped, and there was reduced supply and increased demand," he said.
With runoff just beginning, this year's water supply appears to be adequate, but, as always, time and Mother Nature will tell.
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