Ag Weather Impacts

Ag Weather Impacts

Multiple weather systems will continue to impact the area this Christmas week with a chance for rain or snow in the southern Columbia Basin today and tonight and then Wednesday and Thursday. The snow chances will be mainly in the overnight and early morning hours. In the north, for farms near Yakima, Moses Lake, and Ellensburg, the snow chances should be limited to just Wednesday and Thursday. Only an inch or less of snow is likely, so farm to market transport delays should be minimal unless traveling over the mountains. Overall precipitation will be greatest near the Cascades and Blue mountains with a quarter to half inch. You can plan on high pressure to bring drier conditions for Friday into the weekend. Looking out into next week, a generally dry weather pattern will prevail with temperatures colder than normal. Look for soil temperatures to drift a little lower and be mainly in the lower to mid 30s over the next week to ten days. NOAA's climate prediction center has released it's outlook for January and also for February through April. It's calling for temperatures to average above normal with less precipitation than usual across the Columbia Basin and adjacent mountain areas. So it is likely the snowpack will be lagging going into the spring melting period. The CPC cites the formation of El Nino conditions as the major factor in predicting the warmer and drier conditions for the Pacific Northwest.
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