Basin snowpack forecast shows below average runoff

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LibbyMt.com > News > February 2010 > Basin snowpack forecast shows below average runoff

Basin snowpack forecast shows below average runoff
Showing 8th lowest in last 50 years
February 12, 2010
The Columbia Basin Bulletin, Weekly Fish & Wildlife News, reports snowpack totals are down across the entire Columbia-Snake river basin this winter as compared to long-term averages, and as a result so are hopes for a generous water supply this spring and summer for migrating salmon, power generators, irrigators and other users.

"Today's "final" monthly water supply forecast from the NOAA National Weather Service's Northwest River Forecast Center says that the most likely runoff volume from January through July as measured at the lower Columbia's The Dalles Dam is expected to be 79.2 million acre feet, or 74 percent of the average annual flow during the 1971-2000 period. The average volume is 107.3 MAF. All of the unused runoff from the upper Columbia and the Snake and their tributaries flow past The Dalles. Such an outcome would rank the 2010 water supply as the 43th best on a 50-year record dating back to 1961. A dry 2010 also would mean that runoff in 10 of the past 11 years has been below average," the report stated.

Click here for the complete report: BASIN SNOWPACK FORECAST SHOWING 8TH LOWEST IN LAST 50 YEARS; BONNEVILLE PROJECTS $6 MILLION LOSS THE COLUMBIA BASIN BULLETIN - Weekly Fish and Wildlife News

LibbyMt.com > News > February 2010 > Basin snowpack forecast shows below average runoff

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