Much Of Washington’s Snowpack In Good Shape

Weather patterns have been on the relatively dry side across the Northwest as we start the month of December.  But that doesn’t mean snowpacks aren’t in good shape across the Evergreen state.

Matt Warbritton with NRCS said thanks to a very active November, in which an atmospheric river brought multiple wet systems to the region, "Overall snowpack across the state is maintaining at higher levels where we've seen well above normal snowpack early in this season.”

Warbritton noted one part of the state where snowpacks are low, and in some cases below average, is the central Cascades stretching north to the Washington Pass area.  He acknowledged that it is early in the snow season.

“But we are starting to see emerging deficits, and more importantly, with water year to date precipitation," Warbritton said.  "So, that element includes both rain and snowpack and we're seeing some moderate deficits pop up in that Central Cascades region.  And we've seen deficits really continuing in that area since last year and last winter, when of course the snowpack was quite poor.” 

Current snowpacks range from a low of 67% of average in the Central Puget Sound area to 233% of average for the Lower Yakima.  Currently, five basins across Washington are 150% of average of greater for this time of year.

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