People seeking any shred of normalcy as 2020 ends can find one in Oregon鈥檚 snowpack.
Oregon is heading into the new year with close to normal levels of snowpack statewide, according to the .
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a good sign,鈥� said Scott Oviatt, the snow survey supervisory hydrologist with NRCS in Portland. 鈥淲e have room for improvement, obviously.鈥�
Snowpack is one indicator of how much water will be available in Oregon come spring. Oregon will start 2021 with nearly 70% of the state . Many parts of the state will still .
鈥淲e are a little concerned, and we will remain concerned as long as we鈥檙e running that long-term deficit,鈥� Oviatt said. 鈥淏ecause it takes above-normal precipitation and above-normal snow accumulation to mitigate those deficits.鈥�
Lake County in south-Central Oregon had barely exceeded half of its average annual precipitation by late December. The same can be said for the Owyhee Basin bordering Idaho and Nevada. Several other parts of Oregon are also running well short of annual averages.
The Northwest is in a , which usually signals above-average precipitation and could help parts of the state make up deficits.
鈥淐onfidence is pretty high that the winter months will be wetter than normal,鈥� said Tyler Kranz, a meteorologist with the .
Signs point to above-normal snowpack by spring, but we鈥檙e still a long way away from knowing how that will shape summer in Oregon. Last year, for example, high temperatures in the spring and early summer spirited away above-normal snowpack achieved in the winter.
鈥淪o the benefits of the snowmelt runoff that we would hope to see were accelerated,鈥� Oviatt said. 鈥淭he water supply and surface water was not available later in the year.鈥�
The Natural Resources Conservation Service plans to release its first water supply report for 2021 on Friday, Jan. 1.
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