One glance up at the Olympic Mountains will confirm what the latest Washington Water Supply Outlook report says: There’s a lot of snow up there.
Actually, “a lot” is relative.
According to the monthly water supply report, the Olympic Mountains snowpack as of May 1 was 94 percent of average.
But that’s a whopping 607 percent of last year’s drought-ravaged total.
“Last year was a total anomaly,” said Scott Pattee, water supply specialist for the state Natural Resources Conservation Service in Mount Vernon.
This year, the snowpack telemetry site at Dungeness in Olympic National Forest in Clallam County, at an of elevation 4,000 feet, recorded a snow depth of 19 inches as of May 1, with 6.9 inches water content, versus zero water content last year.
The snowpack telemetry site at Mount Crag in Olympic National Forest in Jefferson County, at an elevation of 4,050 feet, recorded a snow depth of 88 inches as of May 1, with 26 inches water content, versus 10.4 inches last year.
The snowpack telemetry site at Waterhole in Olympic National Park in Clallam County, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, recorded a snow depth of 91 inches as of May 1, with 41 inches water content, versus 8.3 inches last year.
