Washington Snowpack Dwindles To Start February

Washington’s statewide snowpack is sitting at 99% of average for this time of year, but according to NRCS the snowpack is dwindling. Scott Pattee with NRCS Washington said while the mountains have seen snow showers over the past month, they weren’t at the levels needed to maintain January’s snowpack figures.

“We’ve had some precipitation here and there, so it doesn’t seem like it is, but the storms just haven’t been living up to their potential, let’s put it that way.  Whether it’s snow in the mountains, or rain in the valleys or a combination of both.”

As far as the basins across the state are concerned:

• Upper Columbia – 104% of average
• Lower Pend Oreille – 86% of average
• Spokane – 94% of average
• Central Columbia – 88% of average
• Upper Yakima – 82% of average
• Naches – 93% of average
• Lower Yakima 79% of average
• Klickitat – 96% of average
• Lower Columbia – 100% of average
• South Puget Sound – 95% of average
• Central Puget Sound – 93% of average
• North Puget Sound – 103% of average
• Olympic – 97% of average

Pattee was quick to note he’s not concerned right now, especially when it comes to basins that have built in storage.

“Because we had really great fall rains and really buffered those reservoirs up.  So, even if we fall a little bit behind on snowpack, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue at this time.  Now, basins that do not have storage, some of those could maybe have some issues.”

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