AUGUSTA — State snow survey results for February released Friday revealed high water content in Maine’s snowpack, especially in northern Franklin and Somerset counties.

But it’s still too early to know whether that extra content will cause or contribute to flooding come spring, Robert G. Marvinney, Maine Geological Survey director, said Friday.

“There’s no flood worries now, because it’s so cold, but it will be adding snow this weekend and, in March, we’ll look at it for possible flood concerns,” Marvinney said.

Snow depths and water content have really jumped since the January survey, he said. Five sites in Maine report more than 30 inches of snow and a dozen sites recorded more than 6 inches of water content.

The snowpack in eastern Maine has slightly higher water content, but the greatest water content in the survey is in the Western Mountains to the Canadian border, he said.

The highest water content, Marvinney said, was reported in northern Franklin and Somerset counties. Results are in the upper 25 percent range of measurements conducted over the past 10 years in Rumford, Fryeburg, Lewiston-Auburn and across much of the state.

“I thought there would be a lot more water” in the snowpack, he said.

The map of water content for February shows 3 to 5 inches of water in the snow in southern, central and northern Maine. Compared to the past decade, much of the water content in the snowpack around the state is in the upper 25 percent of measurements, except in northernmost Maine and the western foothills, where the water content is normal, Marvinney said.

“There is no threat of flooding right now,” he said. “We’re just doing our homework for March and April to know what we will be facing.”

He said that historically, snow melt alone doesn’t cause significant flooding. However, melting snow was a significant contributor to rainstorms that caused major flooding on the Kennebec River in 1987 and on the St. John River at Fort Kent in 2008, according to the Maine Cooperative Survey news release.

The survey gathers, interprets and distributes information on the depth and water content of Maine’s snowpack in the late winter and early spring when the danger of flooding in Maine’s rivers and streams is greatest. The snow survey is conducted each winter beginning in January with monthly measurements. Weekly measurements begin in March and continue until snowmelt is complete.

In addition to the higher water content and snow depths, Marvinney said, everything “is so locked up in ice.”

“We’ve got significant ice right now and once it starts thawing, that could cause problems,” he said.

The next advisory will be done in early March. The snow survey for February was completed during the week of February 2, and the final maps are available at: www.maine.gov/rfac/rfac_snow.shtml.

tkarkos@sunmediagroup.net