The high-elevation snowpack, a vital source of water for summer irrigation as well as recreation, has been accumulating at a record pace across Northeast Oregon.

A storm this weekend, the latest in a series of soggy systems, piled prodigious amounts of snow throughout the Blue Mountains.

The National Weather Service is predicting the onslaught to continue into Thanksgiving week, although warmer air could push snow levels at times to the higher peaks, well above highway passes.

“It’s a great start,” said Mark Bennett, who owns a cattle ranch near Unity in southern Baker County.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, all of Baker, Union, Wallowa and Grant counties are in moderate drought, which is the least severe of the four-category index. The others are severe, extreme and exceptional drought.

Most of Umatilla County is also rated as being in moderate drought, the exception being the northwest corner, which is abnormally dry, the category below moderate drought. In Morrow County the southern half is in moderate drought, the northern half unusually dry.

Although the mountain snowpack typically peaks in March or early April, Bennett said he’s encouraged by the early accumulation.

The occasional rain that started falling in mid-October was also beneficial, said Bennett, a former Baker County commissioner.

Precipitation that falls before the ground freezes can soak into the soil, helping to replenish ground depleted of moisture during the hot, dry summer, Bennett said.

As of Monday morning, the water content in the snow, measured at more than a dozen automated stations in Northeastern Oregon and Southeastern Washington, was about 3½ times above average.

The stations weigh the snow and calculate the water content. That’s a more meaningful statistic than snow depth, because a foot of light, powdery snow can contain less water than heavy, wet snow half as deep.

On Monday the water content at most stations was the highest on record for the date.

The majority of Snotels were installed in the late 1970s or early 1980s.