A year of Arizona’s wet weather made a big dent in drought conditions – but how much?

During a snowpack survey on the Verde River Watershed this February, the Salt River Project (SRP) was thrilled at what it found. “Woo, that’s deep!“ Four feet deep, to be exact. SRP sends crews to monitor winter snowpack a few times each year – driving or flying – to spots like Happy Jack. “Get on the snow shoes and go out to the designated areas and stick the federal sampler in the snow, take it out and weigh it, and we can get an idea of how much water equivalent to snowpack it is,“ said Bo Svoma, Salt River Project Meteorologist. Or, how much water is in the snow, if it was all melted. This season, you might’ve guessed, brought in huge numbers. “Usually you come out here in late February and these sites will have like six inches of snow water equivalent,“ Svoma said. “Today we measured 13.3“ of snow water equivalent, which is really impressive.“ This year’s snowpack is the largest in three decades. As it