By Dee Camp
Chronicle staff

     OKANOGAN – Firefighters are girding for a potentially bad fire season after getting the first batch of water predictions for 2009.
     Okanogan Fire Chief Gordon Hennigs said figures provided by Okanogan County Emergency Management indicate there’s not much snow in the mountains. That translates to dry conditions later on this year.
     “We always have a substantial fire season here in the valley, but if the mountains are dry there’s a higher chance of fire there,” he said. “If we get a fire, there would be a higher potential of it moving out of the forest to threaten communities, like with Tripod.”
     The 2006 Tripod Fire burned for weeks in the mountains between the Methow and Okanogan valleys and threatened Conconully.
     Although the snowpack figures are preliminary, “I don’t know if we could get enough (snow) now to make up the difference,” Hennigs said.
     Feb. 1 snow cover on the Okanogan River drainage was 74 percent of average, according to the Washington Water Supply Outlook Report from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service and National Weather Service.
     Omak Creek had 48 percent of average snow cover and the Methow River had 63 percent.
     Readings from SNOTEL monitoring sites around the state were used to compile the report.
     Snow water content at Salmon Meadows, above Conconully, was 2.5 inches. The figure reflects how much water is in the snow cover.
     The Feb. 1 average for the site is 7.5 inches.
     Combined storage at Conconully Lake and Conconully Reservoir was 5,000 acre-feet, 20 percent of capacity and 28 percent of the Feb. 1 average.
     The Okanogan River's flow was 74 percent of average as of Feb. 1, while the Methow River's flow was 63 percent of average.
     Conconully Lake contained 34 percent of average water.
     The Okanogan River's flow for February was 79 percent of the 2008 reading, while the Methow River's was 60 percent of the 2008 figure and Conconully Lake held was 30 percent of the 2008 amount, the report said.
     Summer runoff forecast for the Okanogan River is 68 percent of average.
     Runoff predictions for other area streams are 72 percent of average for the Similkameen River, 87 percent for the Kettle River and 71 percent for the Methow River.
     January precipitation in the upper Columbia Basin was 74 percent of average, with precipitation for the water year at 78 percent of average.
     Stream flow for the Methow River was 140 percent of average, while the Okanogan River had 78 percent of average January stream flow and the Similkameen had 100 percent.
     January precipitation was well above average in parts of the state and well below average in others, including much of the upper Columbia Basin and northeastern Washington, the report said.