BAKER CITY, Ore. (AP) — Oregon hydrologists say snowpacks in parts of the state are below normal but a few good storms in what's left of winter could bring them closer to average.

Every year Jeff Colton, who manages the Baker Valley Irrigation District, hopes Phillips Reservoir on the Powder River will get at least close to full so downstream farmers can get a full share of irrigation water during summer.

After a dry January, the snowpack in Northeastern Oregon has dipped below average.

At Bourne, which lies in a basin whose streams flow into the reservoir, the water content in the snow is about 29 percent below average.

Colton normally would worry about that, but this year the reservoir is half full.

That means it probably will refill, or nearly so, even if the snowpack remains close to its current 88-percent level, Colton told the Baker City Herald.

Last year the snowpack at Bourne was 16 percent above average at Bourne, but Phillips Reservoir was at just 12 percent of full pool.

This winter started fast, with a series of blizzards during the second half of December, but the snow slackened considerably in January.

In a meadow east of Anthony Lake, the snowpack grew only four inches in January based on the survey done by workers from the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Baker City.

However, snow surveyor Kevin Shaw said the water content in the snow at Anthony Lake is just seven percent below average.

"We could always catch up in one or two storms," Shaw said.

The story was similar on Mount Hood, where hydrologists say the snowpack is pretty close to average but far below last year's levels.

Hydrologist Jon Lea, with the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland, took core samples of snow last week at the 5,400-foot level of Mount Hood and found a snowpack of 87 inches containing the equivalent of just over 38 inches of water, very near the state average of 90 inches of snow.

Last year at this time, the Mount Hood site had 177 inches of snow containing about 52 inches of snow water equivalent. That's 124 percent of average.

Lea said more snow would be welcome to ensure adequate water supplies over the summer — but that winter's not over by a long shot.