Snowpack helps, but it’s still not enough

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The snow the Grants area has had to date will probably not impact the summer fire season dramatically, but snow storms can often last until well into March, U.S. Forest Service Mount Taylor District Ranger Chuck Hagerdon said.

Even though there have been a couple of heavy snows this winter, the snow pack and the “water equivalent,” (the amount of water in the snow), is not quite at the 30-year average as of this month, he said.

The Forest Service uses a 30-year average for water levels in the snow, from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, to gauge whether each spring and summer may be a high or extremely high fire danger for wildfires.

This summer appears to be heading toward a replica of last summer, which was the first in a at least a couple of years that the forest was not closed and no high fire danger postings were made, Hagerdon said.

The 30-year average of water equivalent in snow pack in the forest the Zuni Mountains and the Mount Taylor range is 5 inches.

Last February and March, the water equivalent hit 4.32 inches and 6 inches, respectively, Hagerdon said.

There is a “snow pillow,” set of instruments in the Zuni Mountains that specifically measures the snow depth and water equivalent, he said. That is where the forest service gets its water measurements each year.

There are no statistics for this year yet, he said, but it appears that the summer will be another light fire season.
“But you never know,” he said.

The water equivalent statistics for the past four years show that the region is still not out of a 10-year drought period.

In 2007, the February water equivalent was 4.32. The February water measurements for the previous three years were: 2006, 0.7 inch; 2005, 2.2 inches; and 2004, 2.5 inches.

“Last year though, the water equivalent was as close to ‘normal,’ as you can get,” Hagerdon said, “if you use the 30-year set of measurements as normal.”