Recent rain has provided some much-needed relief from the dry conditions Idaho has experienced this year.
According to water supply specialist Ron Abramovich, the rain has gone a long way in ending the wildfire season.
“What it did was put a damper on the fire season finally," says Abramovich, who monitors water levels for the National Resources Conservation Service in Boise. "Too bad it didn’t come in September because it would have helped out a lot more then.”
He says that the Northwest is back in a wet pattern, and should stay like this for the rest of the month. But Abramovich is not ready to make predictions about the first snow of the season. He’s learned that predictions are tricky, especially when the climate varies as much as it has in the past decade.
The National Weather Service last week predicted a drier-than-normal winter for the Northwest. But Abramovich is predicting a pretty typical amount of rain and snow.
“Expect normal precipitation hopefully, near normal temperatures, but that monthly or even weekly variability in weather as we’ve seen in recent years.”
Abramovich says Idaho needs a near normal snowpack this winter, to supply ranchers and farmers with enough water for next season.
Copyright 2012 Boise State Public Radio