It certainly was a long, bleak December and early January, especially if you ski at Bogus Basin. The drive into the South Fork canyon was less treacherous. In the past few days a wave of Pacific storms finally arrived and dumped snow across western and central Idaho. Here’s a chart showing snowpack so far this year compared to the three previous years:
So what does this mean for flows this summer?
The short answer is it’s too early to know. The longer answer is if we have average snow through the rest of winter and spring it will be on top of a reservoir that is much more full than normal. Below is a graph showing the water content in Anderson Ranch Reservoir:
Last year at this time we saw almost 300,000 acre feet in Anderson Ranch. This year it’s at 340,000. Long term average is about 250,000. And the reservoir has maintained its quantity of water, or is slightly higher. If we get high snowpack and this much water in the reservoir, you can expect that opening day of fishing season could see some pretty high flows.
Finally, here’s a graph of the snow water equivalent. The recent snow takes the amount from an abysmal situation to something in the moderate zone:
