[pct-l] Oregon Snowpack

[wandering_bob at comcast.net (Bob Bankhead)]

Extracted part of an article from today's "Oregonian" newspaper in Portland, OR:

"So much snow, it's hard to fathom 
Oregon leads the West with a snowpack that's too deep to measure firsthand 
     
     
Tuesday, March 28, 2006 
STUART TOMLINSON 
Oregon's snowpack is the best in the West at 136 percent of average. What's more, the snow with the region's highest water content -- the true measure of its value to the water supply -- is on the southern flank of Mount St. Helens. 

In fact, there's just too much snow to measure firsthand. 

The end of March has historically been when Oregon's and Washington's snowpacks reach their peak. And while this year's snowpack is not a record (1999 and 2000 were bigger), it's a vast improvement over last year, when Oregon was 38 percent of average, and Washington was 31 percent of average. 

As of Monday, Oregon's best-in-West was followed by Nevada at 130 percent of average, California at 126 percent of average and Washington at 122 percent of average. 

Oregon's state climatologist, George Taylor, said La Nina -- an unusual cooling of waters off the coast of South America and warmer than usual waters in the Western Pacific near Indonesia -- was the reason for our abundance of snow this year. 

"This is just what we expect during a La Nina," Taylor said. "The Northwest tends to get its wettest and snowiest winters, and the Southwest U.S. is more likely to be dry, with below-average snowpack." 

As of Monday, Arizona's snowpack stood at 30 percent of average, Taylor said. 

During last year's weak El Nino, Arizona's snowpack was about 150 percent of average. "