Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasts

Snowpacks are surveyed every winter in New Mexico by NRCS to provide farmers, ranchers and other water users with water supply forecasts they can use in decision making. NRCS field staff collect and analyze data on depth and water equivalent of the snowpack at mountain sites and estimate water availability, spring runoff and summer stream flows. NRCS considers several factors when making its snowmelt runoff forecasts. Snowpack, expected rain and soil moisture all are part of the equation.

New Mexico is dependent on winter snowpack for irrigating cropland during the summer. Most of the state is semi-arid. Semi-arid climates are borderline, sandwiched between arid regions and humid areas - and in some years will act like their arid neighbors and occasionally like their humid ones. Another critical factor for New Mexico's farmers and ranchers is precipitation timing. When it rains or snows may be as important as how much precipitation is received. A wet October does not help the farmer who needs snow in the mountains during the winter. New Mexico's optimum moisture pattern includes good snowpack, and early monsoonal rainfall during the growing season.

NRCS and its partners help farmers and ranchers gain flexibility by planning for both the dry and wet years, and ensuring the resources are in place to adapt to different conditions. This conservation planning may be critical to New Mexicans because 60 percent of the time we experience conditions referred to as drought.

New Mexico Snow Survey