Snowpack makes water supply look solid
There's a silver lining to those snow-filled clouds engulfing the Cascade Mountains.
The string of snowstorms in recent weeks has wreaked havoc with drivers, made it the state's mostly deadly avalanche year in more than two decades, and raised concerns of lowland flooding.
But it has brought cautious smiles to farmers, suppliers of drinking water and power companies running hydroelectric dams.
"We were really nervous in December, before Christmas, because the snowpack wasn't looking good. But with all the snow we've gotten, we're pretty excited," said Tom Monroe, operations manager for the Roza Irrigation District.
The district supplies water to farmers in the heart of the Yakima Valley, and, thanks to the intricacies of the state's water laws, is one of the first to get water cut off during droughts.
The federal Natural Resources Conservation Service on Monday put numbers to what everyone knows: There's a lot of snow in the Cascades.
Statewide, the amount of water stored in mountain snow was 40 percent above average for this time of year according to the service, which runs a string of automated snow gauges based high in the mountains. In the central Cascades it's even higher, at 46 percent above normal.
We should have enough water for the coming year even if we don't get any more snow the rest of the season, said Scott Pattee, a water-supply specialist with the service. That amount of water rivals the last major snow year here, the winter of 1998 and 1999, when Mount Baker set a world record for total snow accumulation at 1,140 inches.
Don't start counting on a run at that record, however. The Mt. Baker Ski Area has logged 528 inches so far this year, compared with 745 inches at the same time in 1999.
But drinking-water managers like Seattle Public Utilities' Dave Hilmoe aren't worried about record-book trivia. Hilmoe's eye is on the snows feeding the Tolt and Cedar rivers, the sources of Seattle's drinking water.
"It's looking very good. We've got more snow right now than we usually do by early April, as long as we keep it," he said.
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Snowpack makes water supply look solid