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69 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, April 12, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend April 1, 2004 Snowpack remains above normal By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune March’s warm dry days melted much of winter’s early bounty of snow, but Southern Oregon’s mountain snowpack is still about 10 percent above average as April begins. Water watchers say stream flows should hold at average to slightly above normal for spring and summer, barring unusually hot, dry weather in April. The next month also will tell whether mountain lakes fill to the brim or top out a few feet short of bank full. "My best guess is that if we have a normal, rainy, wet April we’ll fill," said Chris Johnston of Howard Prairie Resort. "If we don’t, then we might only get 90 percent or better." Ample snow in February pushed the snowpack as high as 140 percent of average around March 1, but two weeks of warm and dry weather diminished the snow in the Rogue and Umpqua basins to about 110 percent of normal as of Wednesday. "We always get a little spell of spring in March, but it just kept going," said Steve Johnson, snow ranger for the Ashland Ranger District of the Rogue River National Forest. Advertisement Johnson measured the snow at four sites around Mount Ashland this week for depth and water content. Each site had at least 8 percent more water content than the average for March 31. A site near Siskiyou Summit at about 4,600 feet had 22 percent more water than average — a good sign in light of nearly nonexistent low-elevation snow a year ago. "It’s really good for the water table," he said. Mountain springs that supply Medford’s water have been flowing slightly below the normal average, but substantially above the flows a year ago, said Laura Hodnett, public information officer for the Medford Water Commission. Springs fed by melting snow respond slowly to seasonal precipitation changes. After a dry winter in 2001-02, the flow at Big Butte Springs was still below average in spring 2003 despite near normal rain and snow during the winter of 2002-03. "Springs don’t move up real fast, and they don’t move down real fast," she said. "They kind of linger. We’re certainly better off than we were a year ago." March’s big meltdown will probably alter the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to fill Lost Creek Lake by June 1 instead of the usual date of May 1. In mid-March, the Corps decided to fill the lake more slowly to reduce the chances that an April rainstorm could spawn a flood that might harm young salmon. Now that the snowpack has diminished, there’s less snow water in the mountains and less likelihood of a flood, said Jim Buck, the Corps’ manager for the Rogue Basin Project. Buck said the Corps is likely to advance the date for filling Lost Creek to sometime in mid-May, but won’t set a new fill date until after April 10, when new water projections are due from the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service. "I’ll be surprised if we keep that June 1 date," Buck said, "because conditions have changed." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times