Irrigators can expect full supply this summer

Farmers and other irrigators should have a full allotment of water for the 2018 growing season.

The Idaho Water Supply Committee learned Upper Snake snowpack is 133 percent of normal above Palisades Reservoir. The Henry’s Fork watershed is at 121 percent of average.

Soil moisture levels are already high and another 8 to 10 inches of higher elevation snow is expected over the next 5 days.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it is drafting Palisades Reservoir for flood-control operations. The South Fork is running at 18,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). The reservoir is expected to fill by late June. Streamflow runoff on the South Fork is 114 percent of normal at Heise.

Runoff on the Henry’s Fork is forecast at 103 percent of average at Island Park Reservoir. That reservoir is expected to fill its remaining 15,000 acre feet by the end of May.

National Weather Service forecaster Troy Lindquist told the committee eastern Idaho could expect a wetter-than-normal outlook for the next 7 to 10 days with another parade of storms expected next week. The 8-14 day outlook calls for below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation with warmer temperatures in May, June, and July.

The committee also learned that Idaho Power Company’s cloud-seeding operations added 5 to 15 percent to snowpack in Boise, Payette, and Snake River basins this winter.