Tag: snow to flow

Beginning of January Snow Comparison to More Years

On By Ron Abramovich3 Comments

With more snow accumulating in our mountains, let’s look at how this year compares with other years that follow Strong El Nino Years. In the past, we’ve had some good snow and flow years following Strong El Nino Years. The easiest way to explain this is – it seems the oceans and atmosphere has a lot of energy to get rid of the following year. Let’s see if we can still use the past to predict the future and how the snow is tracking.

Here’s our new table of Strong and Very Strong El Nino Years and the years that follow. You can quickly see by the color shading that only a few are below 80% of average, and rest are near average, above average or outstanding with greater than 150% of average runoff.

Here’s the big picture for the Salmon River. This snow index is based on about 20 SNOTEL sites. It also shows that this year, 2025, is tracking these years that follow a Strong El Nino Year.

Looking at Hoodoo Basin which has daily SWE starting in 1967 also shows it was a good snow year. Interesting to note that Pete’s analog years were also 1967, 1993 and 2017 which all followed Strong El Nino Years.  

Dec 2024 All analog yearsDownload

A winter Atmospheric River in June !

On By Ron AbramovichLeave a comment

What an event it was that added much needed moisture to many Idaho rivers. Following is a statewide summary about the impacts of this early June Atmospheric River Event. This rain on snow event increased streamflow in many rivers across the state that will push recession flows out a bit.

Combining daily rainfall and snowmelt resulted in 2.5 to 3.0” of Total Runoff Available at a few SNOTEL sites. The cool May temps delayed snowmelt allowing snow to remain in higher elevations that provided a runoff boost with the falling rain. 

What a storm it was – who do you thank ? Those benefiting include fish, wildlife, river runners, salmon flows, hydropower production and more. The streamflow boost created another flow increase that will keep recession flows higher longer. However, some basins missed the positive impacts from this event. See the following analysis to see why some rivers benefited while others continued with their downward recession trend.

Benefits include assisting with final fill of some reservoirs, delayed irrigation water use that may even result in better reservoir carryover storage for next year. Impacts include challenges for those on rapid rising rivers especially for those adventuring on the MF Salmon River and experiencing the New Velvet Rapid up close.

june5-storm-summaryDownload

MF & Main Salmon Update

On By Ron AbramovichLeave a comment

Here’s an update based on current info. We’ll see later today and tomorrow how high these rivers peak. Here’s a link to previous post to project flow levels on your launch date for MF & Selway. Give it a try and see if still works after the peak has occurred. No cheating, wait for the peak… and play it safe. https://snowweatherandflow.blog/2022/06/19/mf-salmon-and-selway-rivers-recession-flow-estimation-tool-for-use-after-peak-flows-have-occurred-and-river-is-in-full-recession/

mf-salmon-update-3jun2024-2Download

Big Wood & Big Lost Snow2Flow

On By Ron AbramovichLeave a comment

It’s always nice to see what the rivers are doing where you are going or where you want to be. The recent cold spell put a damper on snowmelt when rivers were increasing and put a twist in the Snow2Flow relationships, but there’s still enough remaining snow to generate another increase if not the peak for the season. Stay tuned, and if you happen to see the Big Lost Shite Stallion, let me know !

wood-lost-23may2024Download

3 Rivers Lottery Snow2Flow Update

On By Ron AbramovichLeave a comment

Here’s an update for the MF, Main, Lochsa and Selway Rivers showing there’s enough remaining snow to generate another increase in flow the next few days. This may be the last week of cooler/wetter spring weather with forecasts hinting at warmer/nicer weather for June’s arrival. Keep an eye on the sky watching the weather, and your mouse on snow melt and river levels pages as we see how high the rivers rise from this pulse of water coming out of the mountains. Enjoy & be safe !

snow2flow-update-22may2024Download