BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Idaho water managers are watching the clock this winter with just six weeks left to build snowpack that is critical for irrigation across southwest Idaho.
It was an unusually warm winter, with little low and mid-elevation snow, most of which fell above 6,000 to 7,000 feet. Statewide, snowpack is lagging near record lows. The Central Mountains sit between 60 and 80 percent of normal, but southwest Idaho is much lower. The Owyhee Basin is just 27 percent of normal.
Hydrologists call it a “snow drought,” meaning precipitation fell as rain rather than building mountain snowpack needed for summer irrigation…