Southeast Wyoming’s seasonal snowpack nearly hits 40-year record

Despite heavy snowfall this winter, the region will need healthy rainfall in the coming months to tamp down on the fire threat this fall.

The North Platte River Basin saw 32.10 inches of snow-water-equivalent this winter. That means southeast Wyoming came close to hitting its 40-year snowpack record; the year’s snow-water-equivalent being just half an inch away from setting a four-decade record.

Snowpack is vital to the health of the region. Winter precipitation remains frozen at high elevations even into the summer. It slowly melts and descends, keeping the ground moist, the trees watered and the forests less likely to burn. Climate change is making this process less reliable. Snowpack is generally decreasing and generally melting faster, depleting itself earlier in the season and drying out the forests. With forests throughout the Mountain West staying drier longer, the risk of wildfire increases.

But this year, southeast Wyoming has seen some snowpack luck.

“We were thinking we were gonna hit a record here about four to three weeks ago,” said Tony Anderson,a senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Cheyenne.

In April, the Little Snake River’s north fork in Carbon County saw its reported snowpack hit 157 percent of its median peak. Surrounding areas fared well also. But despite the abundant snowfall this winter  — which will put water back in the ground and rejuvenate the trees — Anderson said there are still more factors to consider when planning for the upcoming fire season.

“It's a great start, but keeping down the fire danger requires an ongoing source of moisture through the spring, through the summer, and even into the fall," Anderson said. “So if the snowpack is not followed up by spring rains and then summer monsoonal rains, we could lose a lot of this water and we could be back into another time period of high fire.”

Anderson said that the National Weather Service’s three-month outlook predicts “Near Normal” predictions for the upcoming summer monsoon season.

The Casper Aquifer — where the city of Laramie gets 60 percent of its water — has “not yet” been recharged from the groundwater runoff from snowpack this year. The aquifer is at its lowest reported level in decades, but it remains 90 percent full, said Bern Hinckley, a local hydrologist who has been heavily involved in community debates surrounding the protection of the aquifer.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, just 11 percent of the state is experiencing severe drought conditions. That’s a vast improvement from the 59 percent that was experiencing severe drought this time last year.