Last weekend snow blanketed the Boise Front with 16 inches recorded at Bogus Basin. Trinity Mountain in the Upper South Fork Boise River picked up about four inches, but it’s the cool weather before and after that has kept more water stored in the mountain snow than in Anderson Ranch Reservoir.
The flows from Anderson Ranch were increased to 1,600 cfs during the week to help meet irrigation demand and this appears to have stopped the filling of Anderson Ranch because there is little snow melt in the high country.
The snow up high this year has always been less than the same time last year. But the melting rate is slower this year and the lines are converging. And when you look at the snow water equivalent we end the month of May with about the same amount of water remaining on the mountain as we had this time last year. The shape of the June melt may still fill Anderson Ranch Reservoir. If so, this may bode well for some carryover into 2011.