The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the mountain snow pack and associated snow water equivalents (SWE) were rated as “above average” for the middle of January.
The report said that the above average snow pack could potentially lead to flooding along the Encampment River. This may impact parts of the southern Platte Valley including Riverside and Encampment.
According to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the snow depth at several snow data collection points near Encampment and River have dropped slightly in the past week but has seen fairly stable SWE numbers.
The Blackhall Mountain collection snow depth dropped 5 inches from 69 inches to 64 inches this past week, but saw a slight increase in SWE from 18.7 inches to 18.8. Likewise, Webber Springs site saw a drop of snow depth from 49 to 46 inches and no change in SWE and the Little Snake River collection point saw a drop in snow depth from 61 to 55 inches but maintained a stable SWE of 15.1.
The findings from this report were based off of several hydrological factors such as SWE in the mountain snowpack, how basins respond to snow melt, burn scars from 2012 and 2013 fires, amount of bark beetle kill and likely climate trends during spring/early summer.
The next geographical outlook will be issued close to Feb. 25.
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