Despite Dry Streak, Oregon Snowpack Looks Good

The snowpack across the Northwest started with a bang thanks to two very large systems that rolled across the area in early to mid-November.  Since then, it’s been relatively quiet across the region, precipitation wise.

Matt Warbritton with NRCS says over the past month, Oregon has seen only a few winter storms that were much smaller.  While that could be reason for concern, Warbritton says those strong November numbers are keeping December snowpack figures respectable.

“That's sort of holding us through this dryer streak right now. For much of the state. So we're still seeing that several snow tails Snow pack that's well above normal for this time of year.”

Warbritton said if you compare the numbers, percentages across the state have gone down, due to the smaller and less frequent storms.  And he stressed, it’s still early in the season.

“Much of our snowpack comes after the New Year and that's really when we'll start getting an idea of what water supply may look like come late spring and summer. And of course, our water supply forecast that we release improves as the winter season goes on.” 

Right now, the basin reporting the shortest numbers is the Hood-Sandy-Lower Deschutes, which is at 107% of average for this time of year.  Most of the other basins are reporting figures above 150% of average for this time of year, with four basins reporting snowpacks above 200%.

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