High precipitation and snow retention could lead to spring flooding

Southeastern Idaho has been hit hard with cold weather and snowfall this year. In fact, the snowpacks in all of the region’s mountains are running above normal, according to the National Weather Service.

Some areas, including Ketchum and Bellevue, have higher levels now than in 2017, a year with significant flooding.

“It could be a factor later on,” Greg Kaiser of NWS said. “It’s still early to know for sure what the flooding impacts will be, but the potential is there.”

A major contributing factor to the build-up is the lack of snowmelt, due to the consistently cold weather.

Kaiser said that cold weather is in the forecast for “quite a while,” so additional snowfall is likely to elevate the snowpack to higher levels.

Still, it’s too early to make any definitive predictions.

“By mid-March, we’ll have a better idea,” Kaiser said. “A lot of the flooding depends on the amount of warm-up that occurs. There’s a lot to play out in the next couple of months, as far as flooding potential.”