Washington Snowpack Above Average for Late February

The snowpacks across the state of Washington are above average for this time of year.  According to the latest figures, the statewide average is 107% of normal, with just a few basins off the pace, including the Upper Yakima and Spokane.  NRCS’ Scott Pattee said while those numbers sound good, they don’t guarantee the Northwest will be drought free this summer.

“You know, we still have another full month that anything can happen.  We could stay cold and we could retain our snow, we could get warm, we could start melting early like we did last year.”

Pattee told the Washington Ag Network it would be nice to have additional snow, February has been a good month for overall precipitation.

“Overall rain fall, we’ve been about 200% or better of normal for this month which is excellent.  We really made up a lot of ground from last month.  So, even if it didn’t come as snow, at least in came as moisture that’s soaking up in the ground and building those groundwater recharges.”

Pattee said the most critical issue facing the snowpack is maintaining average temperatures for the coming months, to ensure the existing snowpack does not melt off early.

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