(The Center Square) – The Washington State Department of Ecology said this week that record rainfall and recent heavy snowfall in the mountains may not have done enough to bring drought relief for this year’s dry season, which typically runs from late spring through summer into early fall.
“Low snowpack in many Washington river basins means drought remains on the table for 2026,” the Department of Ecology said in a Tuesday blog. “The December weather drama leaves us with an obvious question: All of that precipitation did a whole lot of damage, but did it do any good?”
According to Ecology, the low snowpack is the major concern.
The blog goes on to say, “The massive atmospheric rivers that hit Washington in December did put some much-needed water into our reservoirs – storage in the six Yakima Basin reservoirs now stands at 135% of typical levels for this point of the year … there is no substitute for snow.”
According to University of Washington atmospheric scientist Cliff Mass, there is no reason Ecology should be predicting drought conditions based on recent heavy rains and snowfall predictions for the coming weeks.
“There is no drought now by any reasonable evaluation,” he told The Center Square on Tuesday. “Our precipitation has been extraordinary the last month or so. And so right now the reservoirs are all full.”
Water reservoirs are above normal in most cases, Mass said.
“The water level is extremely good in every reservoir, and that’s including the Yakima Basin,” he said. “So that’s great. Soil moisture, wonderful. So, precipitation in reservoirs is great.”
Ecology’s blog said the challenge with snowpack in years past has been early melt-off.
“Even if we get the snow, we haven’t been able to keep it… this is becoming the new normal in Washington. Climate change has transformed snowy winters into rainy ones, and the snow we do get doesn’t last as long as we need it to.”
An overreliance on the mountain snowpack for water reservoirs is increasingly challenging, Mass pointed out.
Drought significantly impacts the state by straining water supplies, harming agriculture, increasing wildfire risk, impacting fisheries with higher water temperatures and disease, and depleting groundwater. The latter can lead to water use restrictions for residents and economic losses, especially in Eastern Washington’s irrigated areas like the Yakima Basin.
Mass does not deny climate change.
“It’s clear the Earth is slowly warming,” he said. “It is also clear that by the end of the century, they’ll probably be 30% or something like that, less snow available to melt. So, if we’re wise, we’ll cut back our use of water, be more efficient with it, and we need to have additional storage capacity.”
Ecology Communications Manager Jimmy Norris responded to follow-up questions from The Center Square via email, indicating that the coming months will provide a clearer picture of this year’s dry season.
“It’s still too early to tell what spring and summer will look like,” he said. “While some areas currently seem to have plenty of snowpack, the spring melt off may very well be absorbed by soil moisture and storage deficits. An early spring could likewise erase a lot of the gains from December.”
Mass told The Center Square that, given the recent record rainfall and snowfall, reservoir levels, and the fact that Washington is currently in a La Niña weather pattern, there is no reason to sound the alarm for drought.
La Niña is a climate pattern characterized by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which disrupts global atmospheric circulation, often bringing wetter conditions to the Pacific Northwest.
“There’s no reason logically to expect a problem,” Mass said. “There are some people [who] I do think have an agenda. And there are some people sort of in the drought business. There’s a drought monitor community that has been promoting drought. I mean, if you’re in the drought business, you want drought. And I think they’re doing that. They’re trying to twist the facts to make us think we’re in a drought when we’re really not.”
The Northwest River Forecast Council will provide an update on Thursday, January 8, at 10 a.m. regarding current forecast conditions.
