Survey
says: Snow level 'nearly normal'
Mail Tribune
Medford, Oregon
By PAUL FATTIG
December 29, 2006
Winter snowpack is an important measure of the coming water year
ASHLAND — "Nearly normal" sums up the first snow survey of the
winter at the Siskiyou Summit.
The snow level on Thursday at the 4,600-foot elevation snow
survey site was 12 inches, just below the 13-inch average for
the end of December, according to Steve Johnson, snow ranger for
the Ashland Ranger District in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National
Forest.
The snow's water content is 2.8 inches, barely below the
2.9-inch average at this time of year, he said. That makes it 92
percent and 96 percent of average, respectively.
"It's not quite normal with snow and water content, but there
has been good saturation in the mountains," Johnson said. "If
you have saturated ground by now, it's a good start on the
year."
The winter snowpack is an important measurement of the coming
water year, providing a bank of water for summer streamflows and
reservoir storage. The U.S. Forest Service works with the U.S.
Natural Resource Conservation Service in measuring the snow
survey sites.
Although the snowpack at that elevation is a bit below average
for the end of December, the precipitation in the Rogue-Umpqua
Basin is 125 percent of normal, Johnson observed. The Klamath
Basin precipitation is 121 percent of normal, he added.
"The basins look good as a whole," he said.
Up at Crater Lake National Park, the snowpack was 72 inches at
park headquarters on Thursday. The average for the site, at
6,400 feet in elevation, is 62 inches for Dec. 29, according to
park records.
The snowpack atop Mount Ashland, elevation 7,500 feet, is 71
inches. Last year at this time the snow was 75 inches deep on
top of the peak.
At the Siskiyou Summit site, the record for the end of December
is 52 inches of snow measured in 1965. However, there have been
half a dozen times when there was no snow at the site during the
first measurement of the year.
Historically, it is the only one of the four snow measurement
sites in this forest that is physically measured in December.
The three newer sites, all at 6,000 feet elevation or higher,
are measured at the end of January, February, March and April.
The Siskiyou Summit snow survey site is the oldest, established
in 1935.
"It's still way too early to predict," Johnson said of the
coming water year. "It is a good start. But anything could
happen between now and the end of April."
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service is calling for rain in
the valleys and snow in the mountains beginning Sunday and
continuing through Wednesday.
Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or at pfattig@mailtribune.com
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