5/1 Washington State Snowpack At 17% Of Average; Cox Valley Normal 80" - Now All Wildflowers

[hatrack]

Washington State's snow pack level is now averaging just 17 percent of normal, based on measurements made on May 1, 2015. That's down from a state wide average of 24 percent on April 1, which is the traditional benchmark for the peak of the state's snow pack.

"Worst snow drought we've ever seen," said Scott Pattee, the water supply specialist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The enemy is warmer temperatures, said Pattee.

Overall, fall and winter precipitation was about normal, just most of it didn't hang around as snow that melts out over the warmer months of the year. It's Pattee who tracks the state's snow pack both in the field and through the use of technology, what are called snowtel sites, many in remote locations, around the state and feed in data daily

On Monday Pattee said several regions around the state report no detectable snow, such as the mountains in the Central Puget Sound basin below 5,000 feet, and the one station that saw snow over the Olympic Mountains on May 5 now detects nothing. In a place named Cox Valley, where there should be 80 inches of snow on the ground, there is nothing but a new crop of wildflowers coming up, said Pattee.

EDIT

http://www.king5.com/story/tech/science/environment/2015/05/11/drought-news/27147919/

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. If the snow on the North cascades has decreased that much, that is jaw dropping.

One of my favorite drives has been the North Cascades Highway from West side to E. Washington.
And that road was normally closed around Nov. of each year thru April or later because of all the snow.
I cannot imagine not seeing the mountains without snow.

We are getting very close to water shortages, very quickly, in the West.