Snowpack Looks Good, but Watch Out for Floods

An already strong snowpack statewide increased substantially in the first 11 days of February, boosting chances for good summer water supplies but also maintaining an avalanche threat that continues to snarl cross-state travel.\ Snoqualmie Pass and Stevens Pass both were closed by snowslides Monday, following closures late last week of all three major passes.\ Heavy snow at lower elevations, meanwhile, is raising concern about spring flooding, primarily in Western Washington, a federal official said Monday.\ Scott Pattee, water supply specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, said a dozen automated snow survey sites at lower elevations have set records for water content this year.\ There are 33 such sites below 4,500 feet in the state.\ \’d2We shouldn\’d5t have any concerns about municipal water supplies and there should be plenty of water for fish,\’d3 Pattee, who\’d5s based in Mount Vernon, told reporters during a telephone news conference.\ The federal agency tracks snow levels as a gauge of summer streamflows.\ The amount of water in the snowpack was at 139 percent of average statewide Monday after a series of storms hit the Cascades and Olympics. The storms added 10 percent to the snow water content.\ The Yakima River Basin snowpack is in even better shape, the service said.\ The northern basin, around Snoqualmie Pass, is at 138 percent of average and the southern basin, at Chinook and White passes, is at 143 percent of average, according to measurements at the 13 automated measuring sites in the basin.\ Pattee said the heavy snow makes back-country areas extremely dangerous for skiers and the situation could worsen with more snow, rain and wind forecast for the Cascade Mountains.\ \’d2Long range weather forecasts indicate a pretty good chance of continuing this wet pattern with above-average precipitation,\’d3 Pattee said. \’d2The biggest question is how warm will it get and how quickly will it get there?\’d3\ He said this year\’d5s low-elevation (below 4,500 feet) snow levels are like 1996, when rain led to significant flooding.\ The Yakima Valley suffered through two major flood events in November 1995 and again in January when the second worst flood in the Valley\’d5s history occurred.\

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