Wyoming Snowpack Below Normal

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming has entered the new year with a snowpack that is below normal.

Lee Hackleman of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Casper says the snowpack across the state is 81 percent of median for Jan. 1.

Early predictions of runoff from the snowmelt later this year is expected to be about 86 percent of normal.

Hackleman says snowpack is better in the western portions of the state and in Snowy Range and Sierra Madres in the south-central. But he says snow is lacking in the southern Wind River Range, the Bighorns and the Blacks Hills area in northeast Wyoming.

He blames the strong El Nino, which generally means warmer, drier weather for most of Wyoming.

The good news is that Wyoming reservoirs have above normal water levels.