11/19/08 Forecaster foresees good snowpack

Washington Ag November 19, 2008 Creighton University emeritus climatologist Dr. Art Douglas has been giving agricultural audiences in the Pacific Northwest long term forecasts for several decades now and they have been pretty accurate. In a visit to Washington last week Douglas said precipitation the rest of this fall through January should be normal to above normal in the region. What does that mean for snowpack and the irrigators who rely on it? Douglas: "Snowpack wise, fortunately with the jet coming down out of Alaska, these types of storm are not going to be warm pineapple express type storms. Instead they are going to be storms more Alaskan in origin. Consequently snow levels will be lower. You are going to get some good snowpacks associated with this at lower levels. Though admittedly the moisture content in the snow is not going to be as high as those years with pineapple express." The problem for the Northwest that Douglas foresees is a very dry spring. He says right now there is a 40 percent chance of a real El Nino occurring next summer which would mean that the fall of 2009 could be drier than normal as well. Douglas spoke at the annual convention of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. I'm Bob Hoff.