Washington Snowpack, Fall Precipitation Well Off For This Time Of Year

Where is the snow?

While many don’t want to see the white stuff on the roadways, there is growing concern about a lack of snowpack, especially in Washington’s Cascades.

Scott Pattee with NRCS said the statewide snowpack is only 28% of normal for this time of year.  More concerning, for Pattee, the fall mountain precipitation, which is only at 56% of average for early December.

“And that’s kind of concerning because we really rely on that fall precipitation to help begin recharging reservoirs and being that storage process.  And we just haven’t had that opportunity to do that this year.”

Pattee added when you take a look at that fall precipitation and snowpack together,"this is the second slowest start we’ve seen since the early 90’s, and that’s going back, you know, quite a while, and we’ve had a number of droughts scattered in those years.”

Pattee was quick to note this is the early stages of the snow season, and we could see a nice late rebound, similar to what we saw in February 2019.  He added the bulk of Washington’s snowpack typically comes in January and February.  Pattee said while the area can catch up, its very early for the Northwest to already be in a catch up game.

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