Water Availability Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. With our whacky West Coast weather this winter, have our drought conditions improved in Washington?
University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences professor, Cliff Mass says our mountain snowpack is a bit below normal, as are some of our reservoir systems …
MASS … “They are, like for instance, the Yakima reservoir system, that, you know, that’s around 90% of normal right now in terms of the water that they have in those reservoirs. Seattle is close to normal. So, you know, it’s really not a serious situation at this point and I don’t think it will be.”
As for our three-year-old La Nina, Mass says it’s time to say goodbye …
MASS … “The Climate Prediction Center has officially stated that La Nina has ended and now we’re in, what’s called, ENOS-Neutral conditions, La Nada conditions right now. And we’re undoubtedly going to move into El Nino by the end of the year. So, La Nina is history now and we’re in neutral.”
And the mountain snow, Mass says that should be fine …
MASS … “I think the snowpack is, what we’ve got is sticking around. I think we’ll get a little bit more. It’s not like we’re going to get nothing, but we’ll get more. And the fact that we’re cooler than normal helps produce snow, so places that might have had rain or snow. So, I think we’re going to be okay.”
Mass says it’s highly probable that the jet stream will move north later in the spring and bring us some more precipitation and “seal the deal” on water availability.
