Snows, rain create good start to 2013 water year
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Watersheds across Idaho are getting off to a good start based on recent snowpack and soil surveys.
And thanks to a new formula for measuring a normal water year, 2013 is looking even better.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service has changed its reference point for calculating normal water years. The agency is now using a 30-year period starting in 1981 as a benchmark.
The new snowgraph drops five wet years from the 1970s and adds eight drier years from the 2000s.
It also has the effect of boosting current snowpack by 12 percent statewide compared to the 30-year normal.
Statewide, mountain snowpack ranges from 80 percent to 160 percent of normal -- while precipitation since October is from 100 percent to 150 percent of normal.
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