Oregon and Washington are feeling the impact of a warm winter as their snowpack is just 16 percent of normal, as visible in these images from the MODIS sensor.
Oregon and Washington are feeling the impact of a warm winter, as their snowpack is just 16 percent of normal. Although the precipitation totals for winter and spring were near normal, it fell as rain rather than snow and didn’t add to the snowpack.
The region relies on melting snow during the drier summer months to fill streams and rivers. Given the low levels, the runoff is expected to be at its lowest point in 64 years.
The accompanying images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite reveal conditions over the Cascade and Olympia mountains in Oregon and Washington. Washington has declared a statewide water emergency in light of this dramatic water reduction.