Oregon Public Broadcasting

Despite the recent wet, snowy weather, regional forecasters say the Northwest still needs a lot more snow in the mountains before winter is over.

Some areas -- like the Olympic Peninsula -- are above average, others are at half their normal amount. Anna King reports.

Scott Pattee is a water supply analyst for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He says at this point, we could have a drought on our hands or we could have an above average water year -- it all depends on the next few months of storms.

Scott Pattee: "It's still early season, so there is no panic. We still have two to three months of good data collection time. And we will just have to see what happens."

Pattee says some of the driest areas of the region are in north central Washington, and in the Snake River Basin that spans Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

He says the Northwest saw a record November snowfall in many areas of the Cascades, but December has been very dry.

Pattee says he and other forecasters will have a more accurate report in March of how much water farmers, fish and cities can expect.