Oregon’s snowpack hits 109% of normal, drought levels lowest since 2019
Oregon’s snow and water supply is in good shape as the weather turns warm and sunny over the next week.
The latest storm boosted the state’s mountain snowpack to 109% of normal and continued to decrease drought levels to the lowest they’ve been since 2019.
And now, the sun returns in a big way.
Lots of sun, near-record warmth for the weekend
Beginning with a dry-out Wednesday, but really kicking into high gear Thursday, the Willamette Valley will see the warmest stretch of weather of the season.
Temperatures could reach the 70s over the weekend, although they’re still likely to fall short of record highs, National Weather Service meteorologist Colby Neuman said.
Most of the record highs for the Willamette Valley are in the mid to upper 70s.
“It’s going to be a pretty darn nice weekend, but right now we’re still forecasting to fall short of any records,” Neuman said.
The switch is weather is due to the arrival of a strong high pressure system that will start deflecting the Pacific Ocean storms that have been battering Oregon recently.
The warm weather is expected to stay in place until at least next Tuesday.
Oregon snowpack reaches 109% of normal
After a historically slow start to the winter season, the snow has piled up to above normal levels since January.
Not only is the snowpack above normal statewide, it’s between 112-118% of normal in the Cascades. That’s a good sign for everything from water supply to pushing back wildfire season. It’s also somewhat of a surprise, since the current El Nino pattern often brings warmer and drier than normal conditions.
Neuman said Oregon got a bit lucky to capture a decent amount of the moisture heading toward California.
“We’ve been fortunate to be close enough to storm track that is normally a little farther to the south, especially over last month, that we still ended up getting a fair amount of mountain snow and cooler weather,” he said. “Oregon is often kind of in the middle in El Nino years, and you actually see that this year. Washington is really hurting for snow, but California is doing very well.”
How long the snowpack sticks around is an open question. In recent years, very warm spring seasons have melted the snowpack rapidly, which reduces its positive impact during the dry season.
Oregon drought at lowest level since 2019
The wet weather and snow has brought Oregon to its smallest amount of drought since 2019.
Only 10% of the state is in moderate drought — mostly in Central Oregon and all east of the Cascades, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Thirty-six percent of the state is abnormally dry.
Willamette Basin reservoirs mostly on track
The reservoirs in the Willamette Basin, most notably Detroit Lake, are at normal levels for this time of year.
The reservoirs will still need normal amounts of rain to reach “full pool” levels by summer, but for now, they’re in good shape.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. To support his work, subscribe to the Statesman Journal. He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon snowpack hits 109% of normal, drought levels lowest since 2019
