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It's spring! By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune Spring slips into the Rogue Valley today, ending a winter that started with plenty of fury and faded with a blast of bone-numbing cold. Big storms in November and December dumped plenty of snow in the mountains, quashing fears of a second consecutive dry winter. Precipitation tapered off in January, February and the first two-thirds of March, but mountain snowpacks were still substantially above average as Southern Oregon looked forward to longer days and abundant sunshine. March to date has been colder and drier than usual, with some overnight lows 10 degrees colder than normal. "Mother Nature doesn't carry a calendar," said Dennis Hess, of the National Weather Service station in Medford. On Tuesday, the average snowpack for the Rogue and Umpqua basins combined stood at 128 percent of average. Crater Lake National Park measured 138 inches on the ground, slightly more than the average winter-to-date total of 122 inches. Ample snowpacks across Southern Oregon should provide enough water to fill many reservoirs and keep rivers running at near-normal flows during the summer. Lost Creek Lake, for example, is expected to fill on schedule at the end of April, and Applegate Lake should also fill this year. Neither reservoir came close to filling last summer after Southern Oregon received barely 50 percent of average precipitation. "We've already got more water than we had all last year," said Bruce McClamroch, a control room operator at the William L. Jess Dam. A year ago, Crater Lake National Park had barely 50 inches of snow on the ground. "The difference is huge," said Christine Faith, a park dispatcher. "We're getting quite a few calls from people who want to ski around the rim." Medford's precipitation since Sept. 1 stood at 13.46 inches Tuesday, .18 inches below the year-to-date average. A year ago it stood at 6.69 inches. The bounty of snow has delighted skiers, snowboarders and other winter sports enthusiasts who had to look hard to find snow last winter. Ski Ashland had no more than 44 inches of snow a year ago, when too many bare spots and exposed rocks forced an early end to a dismal season on March 25. On Tuesday, with 100 inches of snow at the lodge and 148 inches at the summit, ski area managers were planning for a busy spring ski and snowboard season to run through April 14. March's cold has kept many orchardists busy at night running wind machines to protect ready-to-bloom pear trees, but the cold has not damaged the fruit buds. Orchardists were fortunate that a warm spell in February did not force the buds to open early, said Dennis Hofer, of the Fruit Growers League of Jackson County. "The smaller the buds are, the more cold they can take," Hofer said. Peach growers have been the busiest, Hofer said, because peaches bloom earlier than pears. Whether a winter of near-average precipitation will recharge ground water supplies depleted by last winter's dry spell is hard to determine, said Eric Dittmer, a professor in the environmental studies program at Southern Oregon University. Wells drilled into hard rock may not recover as rapidly as wells drilled into more porous materials, but increasing demand for ground water could also affect how quickly some wells recharge. "I would not expect wells drilled into hard rock to recharge in one year," he said, "whereas wells in loose sand and gravels should recharge pretty quickly." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.