The prayers of many farmers across the Pacific Northwest were answered this week as several strong systems brought rain to locations west and east of the Cascades. And as meteorologist Marilyn Lohman pointed out, Tuesday’s storm dumped up to a foot of snow in locations above 6,000’. She noted the water year has started off in great fashion because of the way these storms have rolled across the region.

“All of these little storms, they seem like little storms because they go through pretty quickly, they are adding up for the mountains and the snowpack kind of getting a good start on it here in November.  Even though we get changing terrain, the soil is not frozen so some of that is percolating in and doing some good for a lot of the mountain areas.”

So, has this wet pattern over the past two week helped improve the soil moisture levels in the area? Lohmann says yes.

“It’s been a long time in coming, but I do think we are finally seeing those improvements and hopefully it’s not too late in the season.  Luckily the ground is not frozen to any great depth.  Soil temperatures right now are between 38 degrees to the mid-40s, so all of the rain is able to continue to percolate in and down.”

Will this wet active weather continue into the middle and even later portions of November, and will we get more snow in the days ahead?




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