Water and snowpack projections for area.
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BRIDGER VALLEY — As the grass starts to turn green, calves dot the landscape and the budding of the trees begins to occur, most people start to look to the spring and summer and think about the water situation and what it will bring.
All winter Channel 4 news in Salt Lake City has decried the water level in Utah most of the winter, but has repeatedly said Wyoming was above average. When looking at the fields in Bridger Valley and the Uintas to the south of the Valley, it was easy to question the report of ample snow in Wyoming and all of Wyoming was above normal. In fact, when talking to journalists from all over the state at the press convention in January, none of them reported lots of snow in their areas.
The last few snowstorms have again topped the Uintas with what looks like, from the Valley, piles of snow. However, the reports of the water basins in the Uintas in February held the Uinta snowpack in the 70 to low 80 percentile. And the latest report as of Monday, April 2, by the Wyoming Natural Resourses Conservation Service (NCRS) didn’t place the snow pack above average.
Channel 5 news out of Cheyenne reported Tuesday, “Wyoming enters the month of April with an above-average statewide average snowpack. According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the state's snowpack was 109 percent of media on Monday. That is up from last week's 107 percent reading. However, it is lower than a year ago when the snowpack was around 113 percent of media for the state.
“This week's measurements among individual river basins range from a low of 71 percent of median in the Lower North Platte to a high of 157 percent in the Yellowstone River basin.
In a page, which is a joint effort between the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Water Resources Data System (WRDS) for the State of Wyoming on Monday, this is what was reported:
The Upper Green was at 120 percent on March 19, increased to 123 percent on March 26, and maintained that level on April 2.
The Lower Green (although the Uintas look packed with snow from Bridger Valley, has not seen as much or maintained as much snow this year) was at 94 percent on March 19, increased to 92 percent on March 26, and dropped to 87 percent on April 2.
NRCS graph on water median as of April 2. COURTESY PHOTO/NRCS
