PORT ANGELES — Winter just started, and the Olympic Mountain snowpack is already playing catchup.
Snowpack as measured at three telemetry sites in the Olympics was 23 percent of normal for the time of year Sunday on the first day of winter.
But it’s too soon to make predictions about next year’s water supply, a regional snowpack expert said.
“We’ve seen this before,” said Scott Pattee, water supply specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Mount Vernon.
“We’ve had slower Decembers like this — then all of a sudden, we hit January or early February, and all hell breaks loose.”
Although the snowpack has been slow to develop, mountain soils are already saturated from rains, Pattee said.
That should help the spring and summer runoff that irrigators, recreationalists and fish rely on.
“When the snow melts, the soils are already full of water,” Pattee said.
The snowpack at the 5,010-foot-high Waterhole snow telemetry site near Hurricane Ridge was 22 percent of normal Friday.
Olympic National Park reported 4 inches of snow at the Ridge itself.
Snowpack, a measurement of the amount of water in the snow, was 11 percent of normal at the 3,960-foot Mount Crag site in East Jefferson County.
The 4,010-foot Dungeness site had a 75 percent snowpack.
The basin-wide index is a weighted average of data collected at the three sites, Pattee said.
Other basins in the state are also behind the 8-ball.
The North Cascades had a 57 percent snowpack Friday. The central Cascades were 17 percent of normal, and the south Cascades had a 23 percent snowpack.
The lack of snow has resulted in an unusually late start to the ski season.
Most of the major resorts remain closed Friday.
Mount Baker Ski Area and Stevens Pass planned to open on a limited basis Saturday.
“I don’t recall if I’ve ever seen an opening this late,” Pattee said.
The small ski hill at Hurricane Ridge requires at least 3 feet of snow to open.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center predicted a warmer-than-normal and drier-than-normal winter in the Pacific Northwest.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
