|
Statistics: Clallam County water supply improves 6/10/03 (Port Angeles) -- Although we're in a heatwave right now. Experts now say we may have a better than expected water runoff this summer. The abundant rain and snow in the Olympics earlier this spring should have a payoff in the next several months. Statistics are now predicting an above normal amount of water in Peninsula rivers for this summer. Figures from the Natural Resources Conservation Service ending last Sunday reveal Olympic Peninsula precipitation has accumulated at 117 percent of average for the water year and the snowpack in the Olympics averaged 411 percent of normal on June 1st. Forecasted average runoff for streamflow this season in the Dungeness River Basin is 112 percent and in the Elwha River basin it's 114 percent. Meantime, the Big Quilcene and Wynoochee Rivers should expect near average runoff this summer. Officials say May precipitation was 88 percent of average. May rain at Quillayute was 4-point-4 inches. The thirty-year average for May is 5-point-5 inches. Mt. Crag SNOTEL, on the East slope, had 19.9 inches of snow water and 45 inches of depth on June 1. Average snow water for this site is 6.1 inches. Temperatures were 2 degrees below average for the month and near average for the water year. |