
Despite Good Snow Year, Concern Growing For Summer
When taking a look back on the Oregon snowpack this year, Matt Warbritton with NRCS said 2024-2025 was pretty good to the state. He noted southern and eastern Oregon enjoyed a robust snowpack throughout much of the season.
"A lot of the storm impacts have favored the southern Oregon and northern California coasts and those impacts carried over to much of central and eastern Oregon as well," Warbritton said. "So, snowpack in those regions has really been above normal throughout the winter, and we're seeing a pretty positive water supply outlook at this point and moving into early summer.”
Warbritton noted that when it comes to the Oregon Cascades, the snowpack has been a little more variable, adding locations below 4,000’ reported poor snowpacks through much of the season.
Warbritton said while the snow year was a good one for much of the state, warmer temperatures can change drought conditions pretty quickly.
"“We're already seeing an expansion of abnormally dry conditions, so not yet drought, but abnormally dry conditions across much of the Willamette Basin and that could potentially spread if these drier conditions persist and some areas may start to see development of moderate drought.”
For more of Warbritton's thoughts on the recent snow season, listen to our interview:
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