Early Snowpack Raises Hopes

By Staci Matlock, The Santa Fe New Mexican

Jan. 5–Melt down the snow that measured 21 inches deep Thursday at a federal monitoring site in the mountains east of Santa Fe and you get 4.1 inches of water.

While that may not sound like much, snow that deep across the upper elevations of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains from Santa Fe to Taos to Las Vegas, N.M., translates into a whole lot more water than the region had at this time last year, says Richard Armijo, snowsurveyor for the Natural Resources ConservationService. Last year on Jan. 1, the Santa Fe Snotel (or SNOwpack TELemetry) site — where a device measures and transmits snowpack

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uState’s response to storm angers many living in rural areas. Page C-6

uCity crews still struggling to catch up with plowing, garbage collection. Page C-6

information — read zero.

“Last year was not a good year,” Armijo said. “It started poorly and didn’t improve.”

Snow depth at the Santa Fe Snotel site gives an early indicator of prospects for spring runoff into city reservoirs in the canyon below. Even before the latest snow, Santa Fe’s reservoirs were looking good. As of Christmas Eve, the last weekly data available, 2.7 million gallons of water a day were flowing into Santa Fe’s reservoirs, which were filled to 84 percent of total capacity. Last year at the same time, the reservoirs were at 56 percent of total capacity.

In a good year, the surface water stored there can provide as much as 40 percent of the municipal supply, and excess spring flows can restore life to the normally trickling Santa Fe River. While early indications are healthy, the runoff season isstill months away.

Snow depth at the 11,445-footelevation Santa Fe Snotel site has dropped seven inches since last week’s storm. Shrinkage happens as the snow condenses, Armijo said.

At Wesner Springs, near Elk Mountain on the upper Pecos River, the snow depth was 34 inches on Thursday, down from a high of 46 inches on Dec.

31. “Before these two storms,” Armijo said, “that site was in really bad shape.”

The Quemazon Snotel site, in the Jemez Mountains, had a depth of 23 inches Thursday.

Armijo and the NRCS staff daily track snow depth and water content at 33 measuring stations around the state. They measure from January to June, tracking the sites with the help of computer programs. The snow surveyors are the state’s moisture mavens, giving farmers, ranchers and urban water managers cause to cheer orgroan based on their daily data.

Final calculations of what the snowfall means to water-supply forecasts for New Mexico river basins won’t be finished until Monday, Armijo said. A January 2007 New Mexico State Basin Outlook will be posted to the NRCS Web site as soon as Armijo is finished with it.

Snowpack translates into water during the spring melt.

But not all snow is equal. “Dry” snow contains less moisture and produces less water when it melts. “Wet” snow, like the kind that buried large areas of New Mexico last weekend, translates into more water as it melts.

If the snowpack continues building, snow surveyors hope cold temperatures keep it from melting too quickly in the spring. “We like to have the snowpack come off slow and easy,” Armijo said. “Our big concern is a rain-on-snow event. The rain wipes out snowpack quickly and leads to flooding.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Santa Fe New Mexican

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