Washington water supply update

(OLYMPIA)- Once again, the Water Supply Availability Committee, a group of state and federal water supply experts, has brought news of the ongoing drought. It’s not over, and with the arrival of El Niño conditions, it likely won’t be over any time soon. The group meets monthly to advise Ecology on the current state of our water supply. The picture they paint can be characterized by two words — warm and dry.

Statewide, the average precipitation for the water year so far (October through May) has been near normal. But don’t be fooled. December’s heavy rains inflated the average. Precipitation since January has been below normal. May was dry with about 66% of normal precipitation. It was also the seventh warmest May on record. The water year so far has been the third warmest on record, according to a news release from Ecology.

June started a little wetter and cooler than normal, though it quickly got warm and dry.

All that heat resulted in a weak snowpack in the winter and an early melt-off in spring and early summer.

Yes, this is summer and snow typically melts in the summer. But we’re low on snow even for this time of year.

The early snowmelt resulted in higher-than-normal stream-flows in March. Now that the snow is nearly gone (about a month earlier than normal in some basins), the Northwest River Forecast Service predicts lower than normal stream-flows through September in all regions of the state.

The Washington State Climate Office also predicts a warmer and drier than normal summer. Winter might also be problematic with long-term forecasts predicting a warm and dry winter, possibly exacerbated by El Niño conditions.