Snowmelt peaks are happening – this week’s warm temps should be enough to push enough snow out of the remaining snowpack to produce peak flows before freezing night time temps return Friday night. This will slow melt rates and push recession flows out a bit. Enjoy & be safe – know your limits.
Short summary presented at the State’s May Water Supply Meeting about the following:
May 7 Snow2Flow update – with return of warm weather, rivers will rise again to generate another peak from remaining snow with temps pushing 80s F in Boise. Air temps and duration of warm spell will determine how fast the snow melts, how high the rivers rise and when the snow runs out that feeds the rives. Enjoy and be safe!
Here’s an update looking at remaining snow, snowmelt, volume forecasts and similar runoff years. We’ll see a decrease in melt and flows with cooler front moving in, but melt and flows are projected to rebound later this week with return to high pressure, that will hopefully move on sooner than later…
Why they send river rejection emails out on Valentine’s Day, I’ll never know but got my rejectionS. For those wondering about the snow, here’s an update that show snow changes from Jan to Feb, chance for the pack to recover and SWE graphs of analog snow years for the lucky ones that won !
Following are long & short term snow analysis that illustrate the Jan 1 snowpack and how it ended up on Apr 1. Short answer – need more storms!
Recession flows are in full swing which makes it easy to see where they’re coming from and going. Flows range from near record low in northern Idaho, below average in the Salmon, to above average in central and southern Idaho. Even the Owyhee is flowing above average. Enjoy the flow where you can and we’ll see what El Nino brings next winter…
The Teton River is just reaching its snowmelt peak while the Moyie River is flowing near record low. The Owyhee River is just now reaching the tail end of recession flows. Central Idaho’s rivers are receding from their snow driven peaks. May brought warm temps with above freezing nighttime that resulted in 24/7 meting and probably record high SWE loses during the month of May because there was plenty of snow to melt. June’s cooler and wetter weather will help push recession flows out a bit before the normal low flow summer levels arrive. Owyhee and Bruneau recession flows months are a good example of these extended flows. Enjoy the river, know your limits and keep your eye on the weather and those river flow levels.
Snowmelt peaks flows have passed but June rains can generate additional increases. Didn’t realize the Moyie River is flowing near record low and exactly the opposite of 2022.
With snowmelt rates at 1.5-2.0″ a day for several days streams are reaching their peaks just as cooler temps arrived and snow starts to runs out a few sites. But as observed in the Owyhee and Bruneau Rivers, rivers stayed higher longer probably as a result of the good mid-elevation snow that feeds ’em.
Boundary Creek Road May 19, 2023 with 15″ SWE at Banner Summit.
Snow Weather and Flow 