Weather Impacts & Unprepared for Attack

Weather Impacts & Unprepared for Attack. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

While the Southern tier of the West is benefiting from El Nino driven moisture this winter, the Northern regions are experiencing lack of precipitation. Meteorologist Brad Rippey.

RIPPEY: Right now the main concern is for the northwest and the northern Rockies. We saw some heavy rain and snow earlier in the season across the Pacific Northwest but that has tapered off largely and so we’ve seen much drier conditions in Washington, Oregon stretching eastward to Montana. For the other states in the north for example Washington State and on into Montana reservoirs are in pretty good shape so in those states we can withstand a little bit of lack of snowfall but there is a concern that all through the northwest that our runoff will be lacking this spring and summer.

A congressionally appointed commission reports that the United States remains unprepared to respond to the threat of large-scale bioterrorism. The report measured the government's performance in 17 key areas. It gave the White House and Congress "F" grades for not building a rapid-response capability for dealing with disease outbreaks from bioterrorism. But the commission did give "A" grades for government programs that secure dangerous viruses and bacteria.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange Report.

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That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.