Washington Snowpack Has Become Ho-hum

The great start the Washington snowpack enjoyed back in November and early December has somewhat waned, thanks to a quiet and uneventful December.  Latest snowpack numbers for much of the Evergreen State are still above normal, but not by the measure we saw a month or two ago.  Right now, snowpacks vary from 158% of average for the Lower Walla Walla, to 85% of typical for the Central Cascades.  Snowpack numbers may be a little lower across the state, but NRCS’ Matt Warbritton said the news isn’t all bad.

“Overall water year to date precipitation is near normal in a lot of areas.  It’s just mostly the snowpack where we're seeing some more below normal values in the north cascades and central cascades.”

Warbritton says the snowpack is frustrating since the expectations were high with a predicted La Nina for the area.

“But certainly, coming off of a year like last year where several regions were in snow drought, especially where we're seeing some low snowpack now, we would like to see those areas closer to normal at this point.  But like I said early in the season," Warbritton said.  "Still, plenty of time for improvement, and hopefully we see more beneficial storm impacts.”

Warbritton noted that as of January 1st, La Nina has not developed in the Pacific.

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