Update, May 15:
44 percent of Washington state is in drought emergency condition From the department of ecology’s website: “24 of Washington’s river basins are in a declared drought emergency.” Some of our neighbors, who are on public water systems, have already received notices of water use restrictions.
Update; April 2:
The SWE (Snow Water Equivalent) is less than 50 percent for most of Washington state.
Update; March 25:
Drought has been declared in three areas
from the above website:
“Currently snowpack statewide is 26 percent of normal and the forecast calls for little to no snowfall into the spring and warmer-than-normal temperatures through the summer.”
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A large percentage of the snowpack in the Casacde mountains has melted. By Friday, February 13, the freezing level is forecast to be above 10,000 feet. Snow will melt.
Rainfall totals are near average here for January and February to date, and temperatures have been above average for this time of year. Unfortunately, this has caused lots of snow to melt in the Cascade mountains. This means that unless we have some really cold weather and a lot more snow in the mountains, there may be water shortages this year in some areas. Those who have rain water harvesting systems set up will have plenty of water. People who depend on snow melting may have issues with water; it just depends on how much snow falls in the coming months in the mountains. There could be more cold weather and snow on the way for the mountains and that would help considerably. By next week at this time the forecast is for some cooling. Let’s hope it snows up there a lot. However, it is nearly the middle of February and enough snow to make up for what has been lost is not likely. If the summer gets hot and dry, and it may very well do just that, things could get quite uncomfortable. Be prepared, set up your rainwater harvesting systems now.