The Central Oregon snowpack is below normal for this time of year, but a boost is likely in store as snow is expected to fall this week.

Overall, the snowpack in the Deschutes/Crooked River Basin was 91 percent of normal as of Monday, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service. At the end of January the snowpack had been at 103 percent.

“We just had a real dry January and a pretty dry February, and that’s what caused us to have the lower than average snowpack,” said Peter McManus, an NRCS technician in Redmond.

McManus last week measured snow levels at three sites the agency maintains on the Cascade Lakes Highway. The NRCS tabulates snow data around the West, relying on daily readings from automated sites and monthly manual surveys.

McManus found below-normal snowpack for this time of year. There was no snow at a site at Hungry Flat, about five miles from Bend, 82 percent of normal at a site near Wanoga Sno-park and 90 percent of normal at a site at Dutchman Flat Sno-park.

At each survey site, McManus and other NRCS workers plunge a metal pipe into the snow to measure the snow depth at a series of predetermined spots. There are five locations at the sites at Hungry Flat and near Wanoga and 10 at Dutchman Flat.

Snow depths near Wanoga ranged from 38 to 52 inches, with an average of 47 inches; at Dutchman, depths ranged from 97 to 112.5 inches, with an average of 106.4 inches. In contrast, the snow depths at the end of January near Wanoga ranged from 37.5 to 48, with an average of 44 inches, and Dutchman Flat ranged from 96 to 105.5, with an average of 101 inches.

While the depth of snow on the ground went up from the end of January to the end of February, the percentage of normal dropped because February received less than typical snowfall.

Given the dry winter year in Central Oregon, Kyle Gorman, regional manager for the Oregon Water Resources Department, said 91 percent for a basinwide percentage sounds good to him.

“We haven’t had a whole lot of storms come in,” he said.

Still, he said the reservoirs around Central Oregon will be ready to supply water come growing season. Thanks in part to water held over from last fall, Crescent Lake, as well as Crane Prairie and Wickiup reservoirs are close to full. Gorman also said Ochoco and Prineville reservoirs, while only about half full now, should fill this spring.

A cold front moving today into Central Oregon is more a “weather disturbance” than a storm; it should drop snow in the mountains around Bend, said Josh Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pendleton.

About a foot of snow could fall between today and Wednesday around Mount Bachelor — around where McManus did the Dutchman Flat survey — Smith said. The cold front may even lower the snow level enough to produce snow in Bend.

Sunshine should return Friday in Bend and last through the weekend, Smith said. The weather service is calling for highs in the 50s.

“It is definitely going to be clearing out this weekend,” he said. “We are looking at a nice weekend.”