SPOKANE, Wash. — Rainy season is back in the northwest, but a lot of the region is still under drought.
KREM 2 talked with Karin Bumbaco and Larry O'Neill, Washington and Oregon's state climatologists. While both are happy to finally see rain in the northwest, they say that rain isn't enough.
It often takes a complete atmospheric shift to see lasting change in drought conditions.
"Quite difficult to know when a drought ends," O'Neill said.
Tools like the drought monitor show drought conditions across the country. Despite recent rain, O'Neill says the northwest needs to make up some of the precipitation deficits of the past 6-12 months.
The northwest gets most of its moisture in the spring, winter and fall. So, when the seasons fall behind...
"Our reservoirs will be much lower than normal," O'Neill said.
Even when the northwest gets above average snowpack, having a warm spring, like this year, makes a big difference.
"That caused that snowpack to come off quickly and lose that water supply quickly," Bumbaco said.
And that's happening more often, so eventually...
"The dry spell goes on for so long that it's no longer considered abnormal," O'Neill said.
That's why having a drought monitor is important. It acts a visual for the date that can be used for city planning, agriculture and other aspects of day-to-day life.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.