A late blast of wintery weather swept over the Central Cascades early on Monday morning, blanketing Mt. Bachelor and other high altitude areas with over eight inches of snow.

The snow level dipped to around 5,000 ft. according to Ed Townsend, science and operations officer for the National Weather Service in Pendleton.

Snowpack in the Upper Deschutes Basin has been above normal for most of this year, according to Jason Ward, Oregon Water Supply Specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Snowmelt rates have reduced overall snowpack in recent weeks — as of Sunday snowpack was 72% of normal, said Ward. But snowpack levels are expected to hold steady until late May.

“After a warmer and drier than normal April, the week ahead looks cooler with more normal precipitation,” said Ward. “The medium-term weather outlook is calling for near normal temperatures and leaning to below normal precipitation for most of Oregon.”

Healthy snowpack levels in the Central Oregon Cascades has been a boon for skiers and ski resorts. Mt. Bachelor is expected to stay open this year until May 26. The resort has seen 447 total inches of snow this year and still maintains a base of 89 inches.

While it’s a lot of snow, it won’t be a record. The resort’s record for most snowfall and deepest base depth was during the 1998-1999 season, when it received 606 inches of total snowfall and reached a max base depth of 229 inches.

The water supply is also helping increase water allotments for farmers.

Last month the North Unit Irrigation District board announced that farmers would receive 1.5 acre-feet of water per acre from the Deschutes River and 0.75 acre-feet from the Crooked River. That is better than the 1 acre-foot from the Deschutes and half an acre-foot from the Crooked they were allotted a year ago.

Wickiup Reservoir, which supplies water to North Unit, is currently at 85% full and is around 20,000 acre-feet higher than the same period a year ago.

“The water level is looking better,” said Josh Bailey, the general manager of North Unit Irrigation District. “Wickiup Reservoir is looking good and there is a lot of live flow in the system.”

“It’s definitely a better water year than in previous years, which gives us a lot of indicators that next year is going to be the same or better, depending on how the rest of the year goes,” said Bailey.

High levels of mountain snow could also help reduce wildfire risk in the Deschutes National Forest this summer. Oregon is currently completely free of drought. But experts warn that drought conditions could return and fire danger lurks if warm temperatures persist and soils continue to dry out.

“Conditions are on the dry side and drought development during the summer is possible unless we enter a wet spell,” said state climatologist Larry O’Neil.

O’Neil says the current outlook for May and June favors warm and dry conditions and some localized drought could develop by the middle of June.

“This may surprise some given the good snowpack we received over the winter,” said O’Neil. “But the dry and warm spring so far has dried out the landscape pretty significantly even if the water supply looks good for the summer.”

“If drought conditions do materialize, the main short-term impacts we could see are increased wildfire risk and an earlier start to fire season, higher than normal irrigation usage, and lower than normal streamflows,” O’Neil said.