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Snowpack now above average Depth in mountains has doubled in a month ASHLAND -- Steve Johnson wasn't too concerned about last month's much-below-normal mountain snowpack. The reason, explained the veteran snow ranger for the Ashland Ranger District in the Rogue River National Forest, was that Mother Nature always has a few surprises in store for the Southern Oregon mountains. He was right. Instead of being as much as 50 percent below normal -- as indicated by a snow survey at the end of 1999 -- the snowpack in the mountains ringing the Rogue Valley is now slightly above normal in the higher elevations. "The picture has changed dramatically," he said after Friday's snow survey high in the district. "We were only 40 to 50 percent of normal at the first of the month. Now we're slightly above normal." Stan Fox, snow hydrologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which keeps tabs on the mountain snowpack around the state, agreed. Fox reports the mountain snow blanket throughout the Rogue-Umpqua drainage is now about 108 percent of average. "Last month it was only about 55 percent -- so it has just about doubled," Fox said Friday. Like Johnson, he isn't surprised. "Sometimes it's slow taking off, then builds up quickly like this year," he said. "The only bet I'd ever make on it is that each year it's going to be different." The mountain snowpack is important because water from melting snow feeds streams and rivers during the summer, when there is little rain. At Crater Lake National Park headquarters, there is 96 inches of snow on the ground, compared with the average of 91 inches, according to a park spokesman. There is now more than 100 inches on top of Mount Ashland. A month ago, both had less than three feet of snow on the ground. But the snowpack on the southeastern edge of the Illinois Valley Ranger District of the Siskiyou National Forest is only 88 percent of normal, according to a snow survey taken Thursday. But the highest elevation site at 5,000 feet had a near-normal 29.2 inches of snow with 10.3 inches of water. Although cautioning that he isn't making predictions, Johnson observed that a pattern seems to be developing in his district this winter. He has been keeping track of snow depths in the higher regions of the Ashland district for about two decades. "The general rule is that, below 5,000 feet, the snow is a little below normal this winter," he said, adding that the reverse is true above that elevation. While the Siskiyou Summit snowpack and water content is slightly below normal at 5,000 feet above sea level, the snow depth at the 6,500-foot Mount Ashland switchback snow survey sites is 71 inches with 22 inches of water. The average for that site this time of year is 67 inches of snow with 21 inches of water, he said. While the bulk of the mountain snow falls in December and January, February and March can bring a few surprises in the form of heavy snow, he said. "But you can never tell what will happen," he added. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA