The last New Mexico water supply forecast of the season holds no surprises and few changes.

The Rio Grande Basin's snowpack is at 88 percent of the 30-year rolling average and melting fast in the recent warm days, according to the basin outlook prepared by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Pecos River Basin remains at well over 100 percent of average while the gasping Canadian has fallen to less than half of average.

The snow-tipped peaks of the Northern New Mexico mountains will lose their white completely in the next couple of weeks, unless a freak snowstorm blows in off the coast.

The reservoirs were gaining water daily in early May, although levels will be reduced as the irrigation season gets into full swing. Wayne Sleep, a snow surveyor for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, said it looked like the state's irrigators in the Rio Grande Basin would have an average year. "I don't see them cutting (water) allocations," Sleep said.

Several northern reservoirs — Abiquiú, Costilla and El Vado — have well above average water levels. Santa Fe's municipal reservoirs were at almost 86 percent capacity on May 5 compared to 73 percent last year. About 16 million gallons of water a day were flowing into the city's McClure Reservoir.

Elephant Butte Reservoir, the state's largest and a key component in the delivery of water to Southern New Mexico and Texas farmers under the Rio Grande Compact, held 580,400 acre-feet of water on May 1, about 45,000 acre-feet more than last year. Still, that's less then half the monster reservoir's capacity.

Predictions of Rio Grande flows past the Otowi Bridge favor about 450 acre-feet or 85 percent of average from May to July.

While it is too soon to predict the monsoon season, which usually begins the second week in July, Sleep said meteorological reports he's seen so far are guessing at an average year for summer rains.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.