Henry’s Fork, January 27th, 2024
Headlines From Dr. Rob Van Kirk’s Henry’s Fork Drainage Snow Water Equivalent Report of January 26th, 2024
- Repeat of Wednesday: light precipitation yesterday was enough to keep water-year total precipitation at 88% of average and SWE at 70% of average.
- Generally dry weather is expected until late next week, when we have a 50-60% chance of above-average precipitation and a 20% chance of heavy precipitation.
- At an average outflow of 377 cfs, Island Park Reservoir gained 28 ac-ft yesterday and is 90% full, compared with 74% full on average.
- The upper Snake River reservoir system is 73% full, compared with 60% full on average.
. Precipitation was enough to keep the water-year total at 88% of average: 88% in the Teton headwaters, 86% in Fall River headwaters, 81% in upper Henry’s Fork, and 129% in the valleys.
New snow water equivalent (SWE) accumulations were light, ranging from 0 at three stations to 0.3 inch at Grand Targhee. This left SWE at 70% of average: 77% in Teton, 74% in Fall River, and 61% in upper Henry’s Fork. The watershed mean stayed in 34th place out of the last 36 years, still ahead of 2001 and 1994 but behind 2010 and 1990. For a recent-year reference, current SWE is about 8% lower than it was at this time in 2021, which ended the winter with a peak SWE of 78% of average.
Rob Van Kirk, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
P.O. Box 550
Ashton, ID 83420
208-881-3407 CELL