SRP officials conduct snowpack survey after winter storm

The week of Feb. 12, 2024 brought the Arizona high country much-needed snow, and the winter weather has flipped snowpack numbers in parts of Arizona from below average to above average.

As of Feb. 14, The Verde River Basin is 140% above average, while the Salt River Basin is 123% above average. Both basins help fulfill the water demand in Phoenix.

The data mentioned above is all calculated using automated sites called ‘snotel,’ and on Feb. 13, we went with SRP officials to one of the sites, where the numbers are confirmed.

"Every few weeks, the SRP crew will come out to take measurements on the Salt and Verde watersheds," said SRP Meteorologist Bo Svoma. "They do those measurements on something called a snow pillow."

The crews take measurements to determine the snow water equivalent.

"The reason why we care about all this is because we want to understand how much water is up here on the watershed, ready to flow downhill toward the reservoirs," said Svoma.

Svoma said the measurements help their team prepare for floods and plan for droughts, depending on the year. To get the best measurement, crews use a pole that is known as a ‘federal sampler.’

"All I'm going to do is stick the tube in the snow, tell Jake how deep it is, we’ll pull it out and we’ll weigh it," said Svoma. "That will give us an idea of the water equivalent of the snowpack. I’m going to do that four times."

After the plunges into the snow and a few rounds of weighing in, the crews crunch the numbers.

"When we averaged everything out, what we found was there were 7.8 inches of snow water equivalent in the snowpack behind me, and 31.4 inches of depth," Svoma said.

31.4 inches of depth is around 2.5 feet of snow. Svoma likes what he sees.

"There wasn’t a lot of snow a couple weeks ago," said Svoma. "Now, there’s a considerably above normal snowpack. That’s how impressive, really, February was."

That means as the snow melts and runs downstream into the Verde watershed, it will help to potentially refill the reservoirs.

"If we get more storms, then potentially we could even spill from the reservoir system and make flood releases," said Svoma.

It is too early to be certain if they will end up spilling over, as that will depend on how stormy the next month is, and how quickly the area warms up during spring.

Already, the Salt reservoir system is 87% full. The Verde is 55% full, but it fills up much faster because it's considerably smaller. The systems are already so full because of 2023's record snowfall.

"Both years are great," said Svoma. "As of mid-February, in this area, there was a lot more snow last year than this year, and they kept getting hit with snow storms. But over on the Salt, actually, right now is better than last year, which is quite surprising because last year, in this area, was the most extensive snowpack, deepest snowpack since 1973."

So, while we definitely aren't at 2023-level snowpack, the water supply is looking healthy.