The snowpack remains well below normal in much of the Upper Snake River Basin despite recent rain and snow storms, but the region’s reservoir levels are above normal.

The boost in precipitation is welcome but a bit misleading, said Erin Whorton, water supply specialist with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Boise. She was at an Upper Snake advisory committee meeting hosted by the state Department of Water Resources.

“Snowpack is still really low, especially in the more eastern and northern parts,” she said. “The farther north you go, we’re still really low.”

“It was great to see snow, but I don’t think we’re really out of the woods yet,” Whorton said.

Upper Snake water supply is critical for irrigation, fisheries, recreation, municipal and other uses. Current El Nino conditions, which shift storm tracks south and bring higher temperatures, is not treating the basin equally.

Snowpack since Oct. 1 is below the 20th percentile “for a large amount of the stations in that northern and eastern part of the basin,” Whorton said. “We are seeing above-normal conditions in the south. So we have a lot of differentiation in the basin, which we saw last month and are still seeing.”

Below-normal streamflow is predicted, reflecting snow-water equivalent and total precipitation since the water year began Oct. 1, she said. In the Snake above Heise, near Idaho Falls, a median forecast calls for streamflow that is 75% of normal. Higher levels are predicted to the south.

The volume of water stored in the Upper Snake reservoir system is about 120% of normal, said Brian Stevens, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water operations supervisor for the region.

Snow-water equivalent on Feb. 9 was 83% of the 1991-2020 median in the Henry’s Fork-Teton sub-basin, in the northeastern-most part of the Upper Snake in Idaho, according to NRCS. To the south, the Snake above Palisades Reservoir stood at 83%, Willow-Blackfoot Portneuf at 120%, and Bear River in the state’s southeast corner was at 112%.

Drought conditions worsened in the Upper Snake, according to the Feb. 1 NRCS Water Supply Outlook Report.

Above-normal temperatures are favored for February, and well-above-normal precipitation is favored in the month’s first third of the month, according to the report, which cited National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Northwest River Forecast Center predictions.

Elsewhere in the state, snow-water equivalent Feb. 9 included 65% in the northern panhandle, 55-58% in the north-central region, 75% in the central region’s Salmon River Basin, and 74-92% in western and west-central regions.

South Snake basins, on Idaho’s southern border, ranged from 123% to 140% of normal. Snow-water equivalent was 140% in the Owyhee River Basin, in the southwest corner.

Snow-water equivalent was 90-97% in the east central mountains, according to NRCS.