Seven of Idaho's 21 river basins now have average or better-than-average water content levels in their snowpacks after recent storms pummeled the state. Another 11 basins have at least 90 percent of average.

"We rebounded tremendously in the last two weeks of December," Ron Abramovich, with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Idaho, said Friday.

The snow, however, has caused avalanche danger. On Friday, the Idaho Transportation Department reported road closures on State Highway 21 from Grandjean to Banner Summit, U.S. Highway 12 from Pete King Creek Road to near Papoose Creek Road, and State Highway 75 west of Stanley from Titus Creek Road to before Smiley Creek Airport Road.

The agency also reported difficult driving conditions across much of northern Idaho, which got more than 6 inches of snow on Thursday.

Abramovich's office in Boise is to release its latest forecast next week on how much water will be available to fill the state's reservoirs in 2009.

Interestingly, the mountains in northern Idaho, where residents are still digging out from an ongoing deluge of snow, are registering less-than-average water content at measuring stations, because much of the snow that hit the region fell in lower elevations.

Coeur d'Alene, at 2,152 feet above sea level, has received almost 96 inches this winter, while the mountains above the resort town are only showing 77 percent of their average snow-water content. The northern Panhandle mountains above Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry are at just 74 percent of average.

"When the storms came in, the warmer temperatures were above the colder air masses," Abramovich said. "That allowed the moisture to fall out earlier, in the valleys, all the way from the Spokane (Wash.) area down to Boise."

Meanwhile, river basins in southern Idaho, where snowpack in the mountains is much more critical to the health of the region's drought-prone agricultural industry, are faring comparatively well.

The Bruneau River Basin is at 107 percent of average. The Big Wood River Basin is at 97 percent of average, while the Boise River Basin is at average level.

Just how dramatically the situation has changed is illustrated at the measuring station at Mores Creek Summit along Idaho 21 between Idaho City and Stanley. At the start of December, there were a scant few inches of snow on the ground. Since then, about 80 inches of snow have fallen.

Despite the recent snowfall, Abramovich is still concerned that the soil across much of the state didn't absorb much moisture from rain during the relatively dry months of October and November. As a result, some of the existing snow will be absorbed into the ground once it melts, leaving less to gush into the rivers and reservoirs.

"The soil still needs 2 to 5 inches of snowmelt, to be absorbed in the soils come spring," he said. "Ideally, that's why we want to be above average on April 1, because of those lingering drought effects. If we can still be at normal levels in mid-February, then usually that means we're going to make it by April 1."