Oregon Snowpack Off To A Poor Start

Last week, we told you that the Washington snowpack is not looking good for early December. Is Oregon’s snowpack faring any better?

“Off to a pretty poor start in terms of snowpack this year, even with this last weaker atmospheric river," said Matt Warbritton with NRCS. "And now we're kind of setting into a couple more cycles of storms to start out the week. But overall, snowpack is well below normal.”

Warbritton added the light snowpack is due to a combination of factors.

“The storms that have come in have come in pretty warm," he said. "And overall, to start the water year, precipitation has been statewide below normal as well.”

Many Basins Have Very Little Snow

Photo: Glenn Vaagen

Only two basins are above 50% of average for this time of year, and both of those are in the extreme eastern part of Oregon, the Imnaha and Owyhee basins. Meanwhile other basins are in the single digits, with the Willamette, Rogue-Umpqua and Klamath basins all at 8% of average for this time of year, with the Lower Deschutes at 5%.

Time To Panic?

Is Warbritton concerned at this point? Not yet, but he said things better change soon.

“What we don't want to see is December continue on this trend of warmer temperatures, and also in parts of Oregon, drier conditions also persisting," Warbritton said. "That would really start to be worrying if we see this trend continue. And unfortunately, if you look at even the one-week or two-week forecast, it doesn't bode quite well for us making up this snowpack deficit.”