Snow Pack Reading Doesn’t Always Apply To Eastern Sheridan And Johnson Counties

The first snowpack numbers of the winter 2022-23 season are in and according to the US Department of Agriculture, the numbers are on the high side.

There are a number of snotel stations in the Big Horn Mountains that measure the snowpack, and that snow eventually feeds into the Tongue River or the Clear Creek drainage areas.

As of the beginning of February, nearly every station reported numbers that were both higher than the 30-year average for that area, and higher than last year’s numbers for the same time frame.

Andrew Cassiday is the District Conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.

He says many people use the snowpack numbers to anticipate what could happen in the spring and summer, but it also depends on where in Sheridan and Johnson County you live.

“Runoff, irrigation water, overall vegetative productivity, grass available for livestock, and forage for wildlife. The snotel stations in the mountain snow courses provide a good indication on what’s going on up there, but Sheridan County is a pretty diverse place climatically and not necessarily representative of the eastern end of the county.”

Cassiday says sometimes the snowpack numbers can be mis-leading.

High numbers may suggest flooding potential, but if the snowmelt is slow, the odds of it happening decrease.

Likewise high numbers may also suggest a less active fire season, but the extra moisture could cause more grass to grow, making more fuel available, should a wildland fire happen.