The March water supply forecast for New Mexico shows Rio Arriba County is doing better than many other parts of the when it comes to snow melt runoff, according to release by the National Weather Service and the National Resources Conservation Service.
In Rio Arriba County, the projected inflow into El Vado Lake on the Rio Chama is 108 percent of normal. El Vado currently is at 85 percent of its water storage capacity, but is 168 percent of the 30-year average, according to the Conservation Service.
Abiquiú Lake, which is downstream of El Vado, has no official storage capacity since it functions strictly as a flood control impoundment and not as a storage facility. Abiquiú’s water levels are at 172 percent of average.
Heron Lake, an impoundment on Willow Creek which is a tributary of the Rio Chama above El Vado, is at 61 percent of capacity and is 89 percent of average.
At the Conservation Service’s snow-measuring site at Hopewell between Tierra Amarilla and Tres Piedras, the snow depth Tuesday was 59 inches. Precipitation levels in the Rio Chama River Basin have been slightly below average at 93 percent. The snow water equivalent, which is the amount of water the snowpack contains when melted, as slightly above average Tuesday at 115 percent.
In the upper Rio Grande Basin, precipitation has been slightly above average at 106 percent and the snow water equivalent is 103 percent.
The snowpack conditions vary widely across the state. The Mimbres River Basin in southwestern New Mexico has a snow water equivalent just 8 percent of average and precipitation totals for 2009 are just 45 percent of average.
It was the driest year since 1892 for Albuquerque, which received no measurable precipitation in January and February. Despite recent dry conditions and higher-than-normal temperatures, this year’s March snowpack ranks as the fifth best over the last 15 years, according to the forecast.