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Oregon's snowpack is at near normal thanks to heavy snowfall

A snowy spring will help with the drier weather the state saw to start off the year, and to help the central and eastern parts that are still in drought conditions.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Recent heavy snowfall through the Cascades has brought Oregon's snowpack to near normal levels. Looking into the southeast part of the state and its snow basins are above normal there, according to Hydrologist Matt Warbritton. 

Since last month, the state has rebounded from what was a more dry January for much of the Cascades. Rising snowpack number over the last couple of weeks have been a great improvement but Warbritton believes levels could be better. 

“100% is like a passing grade in school it’s not doing great, but it’s ok,” said Warbritton.

He said Oregon's "normal" is still a good thing when headed into the warmer time of the year of late spring and early summer.

What Warbritton said he would like to see is a spring similar to the one from last year that brought record breaking rainfall in the lowlands, but an incredible amount of snow in the mountains.

"If we look at last year, we had some pretty late snow storms that really boosted snowpack in several areas of the state," he said.

A snowy spring for the Cascades will help with the drier weather Oregon saw at the start of the year, and it will help the central and eastern parts of the state that are still buried in drought conditions.

One thing that is similar to last year: a La Nina weather pattern. Which means cooler and wet conditions.

What’s going to be different this year, is that the La Nina weather pattern is expected to switch to a more neutral weather pattern by the later part of this year's spring. 

   

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