Governor Brad Little signed an emergency drought declaration this week for all of Idaho’s 44 counties after a historically warm winter.
Hydrologist David Hoekema from the Department of Water Resources said while temperatures have been rising since the 90s, Idaho hasn’t had a winter this warm since 1934.
“This year's very extraordinary,” he said. “We've never seen anything quite like this.”
This significantly smaller snowpack is melting faster and might not last late enough in the season to supply crop irrigation, he said.
“We're going to have to draft the reservoir system and so we're expecting to have a really tight water year,” he added. “And the reservoirs will have very little carryover for next year.”
Some regions will be stretched more than others, with southern Idaho experiencing the most severe drought conditions.
“We have a couple of basins that are in really rough condition,” Hoekema said. “The whole area along the Idaho Nevada border -from Oakley all the way over to the Owyhee reservoir- they basically had little to no snowpack.”
The region is expected to run out of water in late May or mid June and will have to rely entirely on carryover from last year to make it through the season, he said. The Boise, Payette and Snake basins will experience smaller shortages but will still be strained.
“[S]upplies are short by 6% in the Owyhee Basin, 14% in the Big Lost Basin, 44% in the Oakley Basin, 53% in the Big Wood Basin, and 58% in the Salmon Falls Creek basin,” the Department of Water Resources said in a press release.
The drought declaration allows for an emergency transfer of water rights for the remainder of the year. Owners, like canal companies and farmers, can consolidate and redirect limited water flows to crop fields without the usual paperwork to redirect the water.
“[The] declaration may also help with eligibility requirements for federal drought assistance,” the IDWR said.
