OREGON, USA — This winter was forecasted as an El Nino winter, but it hasn’t felt like that for the last couple of months.
“Historically, El Nino years are stronger to moderate and tend to be drier and warmer, but we haven’t seen that in the past couple of weeks,” said Matt Warbritton, a supervisory hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Warbritton said that across the state, Oregon has seen a big improvement with our snowpack.
“Across the state, especially after this active storm period, snowpack is doing quite well. We are slightly above normal statewide for snowpack,” said Warbritton.
While numbers are up, there was concern just a couple of weeks ago. The higher elevations were seeing above warmer temperatures and started seeing some midwinter melting.
What historically was supposed to be a dry and warmer winter really hasn’t been, despite being in a El Nino winter.
December saw nearly 9 inches of rain; January nearly doubled what they normally see with nearly 9.50 inches of rain. Last month, Oregon saw more than 4 inches of rain.
“Having above water supply really helps boost reservoir storage, which will help if the summer is going to be drier,” Warbritton said.
This year’s snowpack is also good news for drought conditions, where only about 15% of the state is under a drought.
Warbritton added that the drought conditions have drastically improved over the last couple of years. Now, the state just has to hope we can maintain these numbers, heading into the last couple of weeks of winter.