Oregon Snowpack Pt 1

Oregon Snowpack Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. With winter behind us, Washington state can look to the Cascades for signs that our water supply should be solid in the coming months thanks to our snowpack. But, our neighbors to the south are bracing for a low water supply this summer because of their lack of winter snow.

The USDA's Julie Koeberle says Oregon overall has a disappointing snowpack left over from winter ...

KOEBERLE ... "We've really just seen a well-below-normal amount of snow for the whole season this year in Oregon and a lot of that has to do with, you know, just a really mild winter starting off."

Koeberle says there was a late push that fell short of the mark ...

KOEBERLE ... "About mid-February, we started to see a return of winter when we started seeing more snow accumulating in the mountains, but it's really just a little too late and we weren't able to receive enough snow to make up for that deficit."

Koeberle says look south and east for the areas in the worst shape heading into summer ...

KOEBERLE ... "In fact, some of our areas like the John Day basin for instance that most all of the snow has melted out and some of our snow-measuring sights melt out sooner than normal and that, as a result, was lower than normal stream flows throughout the Spring and Summer for the irrigation season."

Koeberle says the Mt. Hood area nearly recovered to normal levels of snow with a late season push from winter, but other areas like Baker and Klamath counties have been officially declared a drought state of emergency by Governor Kate Brown.

Listen tomorrow for more on the Oregon water supply.

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