...but there's a lot of winter left. Right now the amount of water in Idaho's mountains is way above normal for the time of year. The question is whether it will keep snowing. We really need a heavy snow year. We've been below normal for the last 5 years.
I read that the Tonga volcano put a vast amount of water into the stratosphere and it's still there. Some researchers have predicted that it will fall out this winter all over the northern hemisphere. I hope so. It's badly needed all over the west.

It’s a good thing we don’t have to rely on snow melt here. 😁

Water from that volcano is an interesting study. Most of the research seems to be focused on potential global warming, not too much on precipitation changes.

Here is one article about it.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/to...dented-amount-of-water-into-stratosphere

Have a good start here as well, but we need about 3 more months of good follow up. Average can't make up for the last 4 or 5 dry years. SE Oregon.

Most of CA and a good portion of the Intermountain West was situated like this last year. Well above normal for the first couple of months of snow season.

Then the drought hit again and we ended up well below normal for the year.

We had 7" +/- total last week, most all has melted/sublimated by now. Since then a couple of flurries and that's all that predicted this week.

As much as I hate shoveling the crap, I'd take a few more good dumps soon or we're gonna be in trouble again.

Anyone living the the USA western states know very well how badd the drought has been & still is

We're off to a good start too...

Now hopefully the rise in interest rates slows down the building boom

Salt Lake valley is a zoo......

https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/ut_swepctnormal_update.pdf

We might be a bit slow here. 12" on the flatlands ground, 10 more coming in a few days. I suppose the mountains have much more.

We had a mighty wet summer tho. All the pothole lakes on the Refuge were the highest I've seen them in over 30 years - above their banks mostly. June is our "drought month"- sometimes mid-May to mid July.

But it always gets crappy in time for hunting season, which starts August 10.

Good grief, it’s barely December, and our wettest months are April and May.

We’ll take everything we can get, but it means nothing until the end of May.

Yeah, but our "wettest months" just weren't wet last season.

You folks might be in better shape than us down here if the predictions turn out to be close to what they think

Geno, for some reason, your weather patterns and ours in SE Idaho have been remarkably similar for the 20 years I’ve been here. The precip is almost identical every year.

You just have much better quail hunting.

What we have now is considerably more than last year at this time. Last year we were hunting elk in shirt sleeves on Nov 30. The same day this year required a down coat and a 4x4.
It's going to be interesting to see if the prophecies about the Tonga volcano prove to be right. They say there's a lot of extra water up there that's going to be coming down. I don't know how they can predict where it will come down, though.

Don’t the ruin the ladies’ emotional spikes with current headlines.

The poleece said we cain’t drink in the bar…what a shame

Again, no. We were over 200% of moisture at the end of November due to the October rains last year. We’re just barely over 150% this year.

Colder, more snow, but less moisture.

Water is kinda important in my world, so I pay a little attention.

Oh, keep it coming. We're 99 to 120 along the northern divide, will have NO problem catching anything we get for storage. Oh, please, keep coming, I'll trade cabin fever any time against summer smokeout and grasshopper slicks.

Ol' weatherman Johnny P was talking about a big storm out in the PNW that was headed our way.



I don't like snow for work related issues but we are not complaining. Would love to see Fort Peck and a bunch of stock dams filled back up!

We have above average snow in the mountains to the west. Dry as a bone here. What has happened in previous year is it gets to warm too quick and the snow melts too fast. Run off is so fast and short there is not enough water storage available to store it and it goes down stream, or water rights dictate how much we can keep.

Fewer pheasants though!

I've thought about buying a few dozen chicks, growing them up some, then letting them go out back on the 7 Acre RANCH! Maybe some escape?

Have seen them around town, near the river crossings and on the Refuge. But none out this way.