State of the Drought

State of the Drought

State of the Drought. I’m Greg Martin with Washington Ag Today.

On Friday Washington State Department of Ecology held a press conference that included State departments of fish & wildlife, agriculture,natural resources, health and more on the drought and its effects on all those sectors. Director of Ecology, Maia Bellon says it’s been 2 months since the Governor declared a state wide drought.

BELLON: Since we called a statewide drought conditions and hardships have dramatically deepened and as of this week 98.6% of Washington State is now considered to be in a severe drought. It’s remarkably worse than the drought of 2005 as well as the drought of 2001and by the end of the summer we predict that every single one of our 39 counties will qualify for federal disaster relief.

One statistic stood out; Bellon said that Washington is getting less rain than Phoenix, Arizona.

BELLON: This year for example, Yakima farmers thought that they’d get about three-quarters of their normal water allotment, that’s now shrunk to less than half of normal. For the first time ever, at least 300 irrigators across western and eastern Washington have been ordered to shut off their diversions and stop watering their crops altogether.

Nick Bond, State Climatologist looks a the weather crystal ball.

BOND: The El Nino that is strengthening in the tropical pacific along with warmer than normal ocean temperatures off the coast of the Pacific northwest definitely tilts the odds towards a warmer than normal winter with no guarantees. There is less predictability in precipitation but it is leaning towards dry.

And that’s Washington Ag Today. I’m Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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