COEUR d’ALENE — Cold and wet is not the spring forecast anyone wants to hear, but for North Idaho, it’s just what the doctor ordered.

“It will likely remove some of the drought status we have in this area,” said Peter Youngblood, hydrologist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Snow Survey Office.

What happens the rest of this spring is key because winter was no help when it comes to Idaho’s water supply.

“This winter seems to be a bust for water supply,” according to the NRCS water supply report released Monday.

“As we evaluate the winter snowpack on the traditional end-of-winter April 1 date, we may wish to collectively groan with disappointment,” the report said.

The snowy winter needed to make up for the low water year of 2021 did not materialize, and snowpack is below normal across the state.

“Water users should prepare for a short irrigation season and curtailments. In general, reservoir storage is below normal across our state,” the report said.

But in North Idaho, don’t get too alarmed.

Compared to the rest of state, North Idaho is doing fairly well when it comes to snowpack and water supply outlook, Youngblood said.

Snowpack in the Pend Oreille and Coeur d’Alene basins is at 85 to 90% of normal.

North Idaho streamflow forecasts for April through July range from 75 to 110% of normal in this region, according to the report.

Lakes in the Panhandle are at 75 to 130% of normal storage; Lake Coeur d’Alene is at 132%, Pend Oreille at 77% and Priest Lake at 95% of normal.

If North Idaho has a warm, dry spring, then it is very likely the region will be in drought conditions, Youngblood said. But if it's rainy and cold, as is predicted, and snowpack continues to melt at a normal rate, then things should look normal for the year.

Water shortages are predicted in southern Idaho because of little precipitation, declining snowpack, and lack of precipitation in the forecast.

Other than the Clearwater and Panhandle basins, “Every other basin is predicted to experience well below normal streamflow volume this season,” the report said.

Not so in North Idaho.

“We were lucky and continued to receive normal precipitation this winter,” Youngblood said.

In fact, he said North Idaho generally has a water surplus.

A drought hits the south half of the state and its agriculture industry harder than North Idaho. Farmers there rely on spring runoff for irrigation systems to water crops. In North Idaho, that is less a concern because it has less farm lands.

If drought conditions persist in North Idaho, that would have more effect on stream flows, fisheries and fire conditions than it would on residents having water for their lawns.

North Idaho was pushed into a drought situation by last spring’s dry conditions followed by record-high temperatures in early June.

That never officially went away.

Blizzards in early January set the stage for a solid snow year, but then snow stopped falling for most of February and March.

Youngblood said the mountain snowpack, at one point above normal, became more dense and began melting the week of March 20 — earlier than usual — because of rain at higher levels.

“We started losing quite a bit of snow,” Youngblood said. “That dropped us below normal by quite a bit.”

Snowpack usually peaks about April 5 to 9. But the Panhandle peak seems to have come and gone sooner than expected.

“There’s a chance we might completely melt out earlier than we normally would,” Youngblood said.

Youngblood said the short-term forecast for cold and rain could keep snowpack around.

This summer is expected to be hotter and drier than normal, the NRCS report said.