Long winter brings state healthy snowpack

To the chagrin of sunlight-starved Southwest Washington residents, this spring has been only slightly less dreary than winter, but there is a silver lining in those ever-present gray clouds — the regional snowpack is in great shape.

The Lower Columbia River Basin snowpack is 135 percent of normal as of April 4. Overall, the statewide snowpack is above average, sitting at about 120 percent. The lowest in the state is the Spokane region, which is at 97 percent.

The clouds hanging over the Lower Columbia in recent weeks brought little, if any, precipitation to the high elevations, but they provided the right conditions for preserving the snow that was there, said Scott Pattee, a water supply specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“March really played out cool and wet the whole month,” he said. “If it wasn’t snow (in the high elevations) it might have been some rain on snow — actually building the water content in the snowpack.”

While all that snow might raise flooding concerns for some, Pattee said there’s little reason to worry. Spring flooding is fairly rare and the flooding that does happen is usually a product of excessive rain combined with low-elevation snowmelt.

The snow in the higher elevations will probably melt slowly and keep the local waterways in good shape.

“I think we’re shaping up for a pretty good spring and summer,” Pattee said. “The reservoirs are going to be in good shape, especially on the Lewis River. I don’t see any problems at all.”