Transitioning from Winter to Spring can bring in a whole new outlook when it comes to our drought conditions. That has been the case the last month as a chain of winter storms brought plenty of snow for the mountains and additional rain for the Willamette Valley and Oregon Coast.
At one point, 100 percent of the state of Oregon was impacted by drought conditions, not anymore.
Major improvements for the state as we enter the second week of March. The Willamette Valley went from a Severe drought down to an Abnormally Dry category at this time.
With that being said, the largest issues with an Abnormally Dry drought would be “short-term dryness slowing planting, the growth of crops, some lingering water deficits and pastures or crops not fully recovered”, according to the NIDIS. 20.2% of the state of Oregon is at an Abornoally Dry state right now, you can see that in the yellow shade.
What is positive to see, is the snowpack improvement across the basins. Almost all of the basins are above 100% of Normal, with the only exception of the Hood, Sandy, Lower Deschutes at 99%.
Now we were above average with rainfall in Portland, but it was just a small amount. We collected over 4 inches of rain with a positive .44″ for the month.
Spring still brings a lot of rain opportunities for the Willamette Valley and snow opportunities for The Cascades.
MARCH Rain: 3.68 similar to October
APRIL Rain: 2.73″ similar to October
MAY Rain: 2.47″ similar to October
JUNE Rain: 1.7″ Drying Out