Mount Vernon — While the state experienced decent snowfall in December, the amount of snow in January plummeted to 63% of the normal total mountain precipitation, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Washington Water Supply Outlook Report released at the beginning of February.
Locally, both snowpack and precipitation in January were lower than normal.
The snowpack in the North Puget Sound river basin, which includes the Skagit River basin, is 96% of normal.
However, the amount of snow in the Skagit River watershed was at 80% of the normal amount at the end of January.
Scott Pattee, water supply specialist for the Washington Snow Survey Office, said that snowpack in the Skagit River watershed has crept up to 82% since the release of the report.
Pattee said that “February has been almost as much of a disappointment (for snow) as much as January.”
Last year, the Skagit River watershed was at 107% of normal snowpack.
Pattee said the area is a little over halfway through the normal snowpack collection season. If the river basin is going to catch up to normal snowpack, a lot of snow is going to have to collect in a short amount of time.
Possible impacts of low snowpack include a lack of water for salmon passage in the fall.
Pattee said that because melting snow goes into the soil first before affecting streamflow, there is a potential for a later spring runoff than normal.
Precipitation throughout the North Puget Sound river basin during January was 54% of normal.
The report categorizes precipitation as rain, snow, sleet and hail.
The amount of water in the Skagit River is lower than normal, with 74% of the average running past the gauge at Concrete during January.
According to the report, the forecast shows a probability for “below normal temperatures and slightly above normal precipitation” throughout the state through late February.
