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48 °F Forecast | Road Cams Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend March 29, 2005 Though the recent warm spell has already dropped blooms from many flowering ornamental trees in the Rogue Valley, these pears still sport their spring white off Payne Road near Phoenix. Fresh snow is visible in the background in hills near Mount Ashland. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Wet weather welcome Recent rain helps moisten growers’ soil, gets rivers racing and adds to mountain snowpack. But we’ll need more to ward off drought By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune More rain fell on Medford Sunday than during the entire month of February, raising hopes that Jackson County may still avoid a serious water shortage this summer. Nine-tenths of an inch of rain fell at the Medford airport — three times February’s meager .30 inches. More than 1.5 inches of rain fell in wetter parts of Jackson County as an early spring storm pounded Oregon and Washington. The weekend storm still left the region’s snowpack far below normal for late March, but did provide some much-needed soil moisture just as farmers, ranchers and orchardists prepare to open the irrigation season April 1. Damp soil should reduce the immediate demand for irrigation water, said Larry Menteer, Jackson County watermaster, but rainfall and temperatures over the next two months will ultimately determine how much water is available in June, July and August. Advertisement "Every time you try to predict Mother Nature, she will fool you," Menteer said, noting some streams that were at all-time low flows a week ago were running fast, high and brown Monday. As of Monday, the water content of the snowpack for the combined Rogue and Umpqua basins had risen to 34 percent of the normal average for March 28. A week ago, the snow water content had fallen into the mid-20-percent range. Total precipitation for the rainy season stood at 64 percent of normal, a figure that masks the broad disparity that exists across the region. Some measuring stations in the Siskiyou Mountains have as much as 78 percent of the normal snow water content and 82 percent of total rainfall, while sites in the Cascades have as little as 22 percent of the average snow water content and 40 percent of the average total precipitation. The Siskiyous were at the extreme northern edge of massive storms that drenched California in January and February. The weekend storm spread its bounty haphazardly across the region. Menteer said Big Butte Creek’s flow jumped from about 60 cubic feet per second last week to nearly 400 cfs, but Little Butte Creek rose from 30 cfs to 40 cfs. The Illinois River went from record low flows for March to more than 8,000 cfs, high enough for the National Weather Service to issue a high-water warning to river rafters and kayakers. Forecasters were predicting as much as 8 inches of new snow in the Siskiyous by tonight, which should give the Mount Ashland ski area more than enough to finish out the season on April 10. "We’re looking very solid," said Rick Saul, marketing director for Mount Ashland. Saul said Mount Ashland has received a total of 238 inches of snow so far this season. On average, Mount Ashland gets 285 to 300 inches of snow. Forecasts from the National Weather Service were calling for a brief interlude of dry weather Wednesday, with a chance that wet weather could return as soon as Thursday and persist through the weekend. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Advertisement s