Despite a cooler, wetter summer and fall, the Big Wood Basin is looking at a drier than normal start to the water year compared with the start of last year’s near-record-setting winter.

As of Nov. 21, the Big Wood watershed was heading into the winter of 2023-2024 with about 80% of normal precipitation and 70% of normal snowpack, based on 40 years of data collected by the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

On Tuesday, Blaine County’s six SNOTEL stations—located at Chocolate Gulch, Dollarhide Summit, Galena Summit, Deadend Canyon, Enid Gulch and Park Creek Campground—recorded about 3.2 inches of accrued precipitation for the water year, which started on Oct. 1.