Drought Monitor Shows Effect in PNW

Last week’s drought monitor demonstrated that there has been a slight improve in the drought nationwide as USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey explains.

Rippey: “Drought is still with us, covering 37 percent of the country but is still a pretty significant drought particularly across the Central and Southern Plains and much of the Western United States. So bottom line a little bit of improvement but still more than a third of country is in drought as we head into June.”

While California’s drought is relatively well known — for those people not in an area of drought in the Pacific Northwest — they may or may not be aware of the drought areas within our three states: Central and Eastern Oregon, Southern Idaho as well as some counties in Eastern Washington.

According to the USDA’s Drought Monitor, Rippey shares the nation’s percentage of hay crop affected by drought.

Rippey: “We still see almost one-third of the U.S. hay production area in drought.”

Within the Pacific Northwest: 53 percent of Idaho’s hay crop is affected by drought, that number is 52 percent in Washington and 73 percent of Oregon’s hay crop is affected by drought.

As far as cattle production affected by drought: 69 percent of Idaho’s cattle are affected by drought, 41 percent of Washington’s cattle and 64 percent of Oregon’s cattle are located in drought areas.