Oregon Public Broadcasting

Here’s some snow news that may surprise you, especially with all the white stuff around in the lowlands.  Our mountain snowpack is running well below average. 

Some measuring points such as SE Oregon, Northern WA Cascades, and Owyhee Basin are barely at one third of normal.  Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

The federal Natural Resources Conservation Service monitors the mountain snowpack with several hundred automated weather stations in the high country.

Just about everywhere in Washington’s mountains the snowpack is less than half of normal for this time of year.    In Oregon and Idaho, the readings range between 40 and 60 percent of normal with the exception of the notably snowy Coast Range.

Mount Vernon, Washington-based water supply specialist Scott Pattee says this week’s dump only helped so much.

Scott Pattee: “We started the season off very slow in the mountains.  We just were not getting the snowpack that we needed – that we would normally get -- in November and early December.”

Pattee is waiting to see January’s snowfall before he starts worrying about summertime water shortages.

The National Drought Monitor map classifies the Northwest as “abnormally dry” or in “moderate drought” with the exceptions of Western Washington and north Idaho.

Online:
 
Western U.S. SNOTEL snow/precipitation update

U.S. Drought Monitor map