I am trying something different this month. I received some feedback that the graphs as presented in the past are too small. So this month I'll have graphs presented individually and larger. The newsletter will be longer so please let me know if you don't find this new format helpful.
The complete Water Supply Reports from Idaho and Utah are at the links below along with the latest USDA Water and Climate Report.
Utah Water Supply Report (click here)
Idaho Water Supply Report (click here).
USDA Water and Climate Report (click here).
As of May 1, 2026, Utah and Idaho were both entering the irrigation season with materially deficient snowpack despite some April improvement. Utah was in the more extreme position: statewide SWE was only about 21% of normal, described by NRCS as the worst snowpack season in the observational record back to at least 1930. Idaho’s statewide SWE was also well below normal, about 58% of normal, after an early March peak and accelerated mid-March melt. In both states, April was relatively cool and wet, which slowed melt and provided some short-term precipitation benefit, but it did not correct the winter snowpack deficit. The practical implication is early peak runoff, weak late-spring and summer natural streamflow, and increased dependence on reservoir storage and groundwater. Reservoir storage provides some buffer in selected systems, but NRCS cautioned that warm, dry May conditions could rapidly deplete the remaining snowpack and lead to low reservoir carryover by the end of the irrigation season.
For the Upper Bear Basin, conditions were better than much of Utah but still clearly water-limited. The warm spell in late March-early April killed the snowpack, which stayed in record low territory for most of April. The Utah Bear River Basin snowpack was about 35% of median on May 1, due to April precipitation which was near to above normal resulting in snow at higher elevations. Water-year precipitation was roughly normal on May 1st.
Forecast natural flows in the Upper Bear system remained well below normal, with several key Bear River and Smiths Fork forecast points generally in the 25%–53% of median range. The main Bear system is partially buffered by Bear Lake storage, which made the overall Bear Surface Water Supply Index (data not shown) appear near normal, but smaller subbasins such as Woodruff Narrows and Little Bear showed severe surface-water supply stress. Operationally, the Upper Bear Basin should be viewed as having poor natural runoff, early melt timing, limited late-season baseflow support, and a strong dependence on index stored water.
