2026 Could Be A Very Dry Year For Oregon

The irrigation season is weeks away for several portions of the Pacific Northwest, and for some, the coming year could be a challenging one.  NRCS released its Water Supply Outlook last week, showing the supply forecast below normal for all of Oregon.

“And in some cases, notably in many basins in central and eastern and southern Oregon, that water supply outlook is pretty poor right now,” said NRCS’ Matt Warbritton.

As of February 1st, snow water equivalent is at the lowest in 46 years of record, worse than the winter of 2014-2015 and even rivaling, based on older historical records, the winter of 1976- 1977.  Not only is snow drought pervasive across the state, with the exception of the Hood Sandy-Lower Deschutes basin, all of Oregon’s basins are below average when it comes to Water Year to Date Precipitation numbers, which includes snow, rain, hail, etc.

Click Here to read that entire survey.

The Water Year To Date numbers are different from snowpack figures, which for early February were very low across Oregon.

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