Lohmann No Relief From The Drought Expected

As we prepare to move from March to April, it’s very dry across the Pacific Northwest. Many locations are under some kind of drought designation with a large swath of central Oregon under a D4, or Exceptional Drought. With the possibility of April showers just around the corner, could we see the drought conditions improve, or even disappear in the coming weeks? Marilyn Lohman, meteorologist with the National Weather Service said don’t count on it.

“We would need rain amounts from 200%-250% of normal out through the next three months to get us close to being out of the drought.   And while spring can be a very wet time across the northwest, we would need a lot of rain appx 6”-8”.   So for a few area, nearly the amount they get in a year.”

And Lohmann noted while we will see some rain in the days ahead, it doesn’t look at this point that we’ll see totals anywhere near that mark. What is the expectation as we get ready to welcome in April on Friday?

“We will see more seasonal temperatures and breezy conditions over the week as several weather systems move through with mainly mountain showers.  The best chance for any rain looks to be early next week.  Then high pressure is expected with another round of warmer than normal temperatures and dry conditions for the first full week of April.”

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