AP Photo Engineer Scott Wright, left, and soil conservationist Tom Snyder of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, check the snow pack at Hogg Pass near Santiam Pass, Monday. Oregon’s snow pack is higher than average this winter.

SANTIAM PASS (AP) - Oregon's snow pack is higher than average this winter - good news for farmers, operators of dams and others who track the state's water reserves.

Statewide, the snow pack is about 136 percent of average, said Jon Lea, who is with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“It's almost the flip side of what it was last year,” when the snow pack was 38 percent of average, said Lea, supervisor of the conservation service's snow survey program for Oregon and Washington state.

The final survey of the season was conducted on Monday.

The snow pack at the Hogg Pass site measured at 110 percent of average, the Salem Statesman Journal reported. It was 10 feet deep where snow surveyors Tom Snyder and Scott Wright took measurements.

“This snow is pretty dense,” said Snyder, a soil conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

There was almost 45 inches of water stored in the powder, above the 30-year average of almost 41 inches.

There has been one drawback this winter - warmer temperatures that melted snow in low-lying areas.

“Even though it snowed quite a bit, it was a relatively warm winter down low, so the snow line goes from a lot of snow to no snow very quickly,” said Lea. “So, some of our low-elevation sites are below average.”

For example, Deadhorse Grade, at 3,700 feet on Santiam Pass, has 8.4 inches of water stored in its snow pack, compared with 9 inches for the 30-year average. Wright and Snyder found 21 inches of snow at the site.

Still, after last year, the frozen storage is good news for farmers.

“This spring so far has been fairly cool, and I know we have a good snow pack up in the mountains,” said Larry Trosi of the Santiam Water Control District, which serves irrigators in the Stayton area.

“In the last month or so, the ... river flows have been fairly low, but I think the reason is it has been fairly cool, it hasn't allowed the snowpack to begin melting. At some point, it will warm up, and we will see higher river flows.”

Swimmers, boaters and anglers may have a wet summer to look forward to.

“Our forecasts are showing that the reservoirs have a pretty good probability of filling,” said Mary Scullion, a hydrologic engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which regulates dams. “So, we should have some pretty good recreation.”

Still, said Lea, “even though we have a good snow pack, it's still worthy to try to conserve those water resources so that all users get to tap into some of that supply.”