Olympic Mountain snowpack was 110 percent of normal Thursday with the upper Dungeness basin doubling its average for the day, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Snowpack provides a key reservoir for people and fish in the dry summer and early fall.
It is measured at three remote sensors in the Olympic Mountains between 4,000 and 5,000 feet in elevation and compared to a 30-year average.
As of Thursday, snowpack was 93 percent of normal at Mount Crag in East Jefferson County, 110 percent at the Waterhole sensor near Hurricane Ridge and 200 percent of normal in the upper Dungeness Basin.
“It’s been kind of hit-and-miss around the Olympics,” said Scott Pattee, water supply specialist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Mount Vernon.
“The north side is doing pretty good.
“We all know that the topography in the Olympics is probably the most diverse you can find.”
The trail to Lake Angeles is shown March 22. Olympic Mountain snowpack was 110 percent of normal Thursday. (Rob Ollikainen/Peninsula Daily News)
Winter storms influenced by Frazier River outflow produced a robust snowpack on the north slopes of the Olympics this year, Pattee said.
“We had a lot of that Frazier River outflow that funnels up the Dungeness River and dumped a lot of snow,” he said.
“The irrigators there in Sequim, and the shellfish managers, they should all be happy with the snowpack in the Dungeness.”
A series of storms in January reversed what began as a dismal snowpack in December.
Olympic Mountain snowpack was just 48 percent of normal on New Year’s Day and grew to 118 percent of normal by the end of the month.
“We got bailed out pretty good from those January storms,” Pattee said in a Tuesday interview.
April 1 is generally considered the peak of the annual snowpack. It is used as a benchmark to predict water supplies for the upcoming dry season.
Last year, the Olympic Mountains had a 75 percent snowpack on April 1.
Several water districts in the region implemented voluntary water restrictions last summer.
Other basins in the state have near-normal or above-normal snowpacks this year, according to USDA data.
“The Cascades are great this year,” Pattee said.
“About the only area in the state where we’re kind of dragging behind is the Okanogan-Omak area.”
In addition to its local impacts, snowpack fuels hydroelectric dams in Eastern Washington. The Bonneville Power Administration sells hydroelectricity generated on the Columbia River to North Olympic Peninsula utilities.
To view the USDA snowpack data, click on www.tinyurl.com/PDN-snowpack and select a state.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
