
Weekend System Did Not Delivery For Washington’s Snowpack
For the higher elevations of Washington, the current snowpack is a bit of a disappointment. Currently only four basins are at or above average for this time of year, the Lower Snake-Walla Walla, Lower Columbia, Klickitat, and the Lower Pend Oreille.
Despite promises from the National Weather Service of large amounts of snow over the weekend, the system that rolled across the region didn’t produce in the Evergreen State. Matt Warbritton with NRCS said the snow followed a similar track to what the Northwest saw in November.
“This storm pattern really favored once again, Southern Oregon and Northern California, where we saw more significant snow accumulation and precipitation. So, it's kind of been a similar story so far this winter, where a lot of these atmospheric river events and impacts are favoring areas South of Washington.”
Warbritton says while it’s not time to panic, the snowpack is concerning, adding it looks very similar to what the region saw last year.
“So those areas, the Central Puget Sound, and some regions just north of Lake Chelan along the Washington Pass corridor, and that portions of the Cascades, these are areas where we're seeing more significant snowpack deficits and where we saw severe snowpack deficits last season," Warbritton said. "And so certainly at this point in the year, those more significant snow pack deficits, what that means is that we need a really good storm system or several storms to really make up that deficit.”
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