Washington Water Supply Outlook “Best in Years”

After the drought of 2015, and a dry 2016, its welcomed news to hear Washington’s Water Supply is well ahead of normal for this time of year.  Scott Pattee with NRCS told the Washington Ag Network  it all started with an ample snowpack this winter.

“It got started kind of slow, but once we got it fired up it really came for us, and really built up.  We’re still sitting at 136% of normal statewide.”

Pattee also noted the state  hasn’t seen this good of a water supply for mid-May for several years.

“And a lot of that is due to the fact that it’s stayed cool this spring, unlike the last two years, it kept the snow in the mountains where it belongs, and it’s just coming off, which is totally normal.  If you look at all of the graphs, the melt curve is almost dead on normal.”

Pattee said the hope is the region continues to warm up slowly, allowing the snowpack to melt slowly, allowing rivers, reservoirs and wells time to absorb the liquid water as it comes down.

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