The Pacific Northwest, including most of Idaho, should have a decent whitewater season this year. Ample snowpacks in the mountains mean good river flows through the summer. Kayakers and rafters in Idaho north of the Snake River should benefit.
Hydrologist Ron Abramovich with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Boise says mountain snowpacks have held up. "We lost a lot of snow in April with the warm spell that occurred throughout the West," says Abravmovich. "But the Idaho mountains was able to maintain their snowpack. And we’re going to be able to sustain these flows well into the summer months."
The snowpack for the Clearwater River, for example, is at 109 percent of average for this time of year.
Abramovich says Oregon, Washington, and Western Montana rivers should also see good water flows. Rivers south of the Snake, though, will likely suffer from near record lows because what little snow was in the mountains there melted off too fast in April.
Copyright 2012 Boise State Public Radio