Belly up to the water cooler, boys, the rivers will rise again!
‘Twon’t be this spring, though, and certainly not this summer.
There’s snow in the mountains, but it’s more like face powder than deep powder, a cosmetic whitening that won’t last once the weather warms.
On the Dungeness River at 4,100 feet, the snow was only 9 inches deep Thursday.
At Mount Crag, elevation 4,050, in the Hood Canal basin, the snow measured 55 inches.
At Waterhole, 5,000 feet up the Dungeness and Elwha rivers, it was 34½ inches deep.
Snowpack on the Olympic Peninsula is 32 percent of last year’s total and 25 percent of average. It averaged 45 percent of normal on the east side and only 16 percent at Hurricane Ridge as of April 1.
On Thursday, the 156-square-mile Dungeness River basin stood at 56 percent of normal.
Rivers drop steadily
The 269-square-mile Elwha basin was at 52 percent of average. Both rivers steadily dropped during the past week, according to U.S. Geologic Survey.
The Dungeness and Elwha figures were the second- and third-worst on record, said Scott Pattee, water supply specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The Hoko, after a brief spike Monday, continued to drop. The Calawah and Bogachiel did the same.
The Hoh at Clearwater and the Queets and the Hoh near Forks also dwindled.
The situation is shaping up as the worst water-supply season ever, according to the Conservation Service.
“March came in like a lamb, but it came out dying of thirst,” said Pattee.
The month was still thirsty when it went out. March’s precipitation was only 77 percent of average.
