Washington Ag April 13, 2009 Depending on the month, Washington's snowpack has been up, down and in-between this year. But at the most critical milepost for determining spring and summer stream flows – the April 1st Basin Outlook Report – USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service reports that Washington's statewide snowpack is now back to normal. Still, Scott Pattee, water supply specialist with the NRCS, says conditions differ dramatically from basin to basin. Stream flow forecasts range from 125 percent of average for the Cedar River near Seattle to only 59 percent of average for the Okanogan River.
Pattee: "Essentially what I think happened this year was that we had a high pressure system kind of lock over the northern tier of the state just kind of pushing all those good storm systems across the central, southern Cascades, spilled over into the Lower Yakima, Walla Walla and then kind up into the Spokane, are our best areas in the state. So the Baker, Skagit, Methow, Okanogan are all below normal and everyone else is in pretty good shape. The central Cascades are the best, way above average at this point."
Some other stream flow forecasts for major basins are 88 percent for the Yakima River near Parker; 107 percent for the Walla Walla at Mill Creek; 79 percent for the Wenatchee at Plain and 100 percent for the Spokane River near Post Falls.
I'm Bob Hoff and that's Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
