In anticipation of summer, consider our drought

With the wildfires burning in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, one would think we were in summer fire season already. Though, the reality is, it’s mid spring, and fire season is now nearly year-round.

In last month’s column, I shared the status of drought for our region. We have not recovered from drought conditions, it’s still here. Looking at the National Integrated Drought Information System, the dryness will continue. For Washington state, the eastern portion is in drought. These conditions range from Abnormally Dry to Extreme Drought.

Taking a closer look at the four counties that we refer to as GOLD, here are the current drought conditions:

Grant County — This is the 8th driest year to date over the past 128 years.

Okanogan County — 20th driest year to date over the past 128 years.

Lincoln County — 18th driest year to date over the part 128 years. Douglas County — 15th driest year to date over the past 128 years.

This drought is persisting, and it appears it will continue. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is showing below normal precipitation and above normal temperatures for the three-month period of May through July 2022.

How drought is measured has developed greatly from Dust Bowl days of nearly a century ago. The tools, knowledge and science used to determine where drought conditions are located keep all of us well informed.

The National Drought Mitigation Center shares this: “Researchers have developed a number of tools to help define the onset, severity, and end of droughts. Drought indices take thousands of bits of data on rainfall, snowpack, streamflow, etc., analyze the data over various time frames, and turn the data into a comprehensible big picture.

La Niña is still active in the Tropical Pacific. It’s one effect of the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the Tropical Pacific Ocean. In over 70 years of observations of this global weather-affecting, ocean-atmospheric system, this is the third time for a three-year La Niña occurrence. Currently, forecasters say there is nearly a 60 percent chance of La Niña lasting into most of the summer. La Niña influences the Hurricane Season, especially in the Atlantic. It can also increase drought conditions in some regions.

The current snowpack numbers for the greater region are as follows: On our north, the Upper Columbia is at 113%. To our west, the Central Columbia is at 107%, and to our east, Spokane is at 93%. The numbers represent Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) of the 1981-2010 Average.

I have a copy of a report prepared some 45 years ago. It’s titled, “History of Drought in Washington State.” It was prepared by the Governor’s Ad Hoc Executive Water Emergency Committee staff in December 1977. Some interesting historical information is in the report. Of real interest, at least to me, were the graphs of pre-historic tree ring data. The data presented was for wet periods versus dry periods, going back to 1600.

There is an interesting quote found in this report. “Despite impressive gains in reducing the effects of drought, the trends of increasing population, the demand for food, the scarcity of resources, and the growing competition for water suggest that future droughts will continue to clearly, if not severely, impact society.” Though climate change, driven in part by an accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, was a subject gaining some tracking in the scientific community in the late 1970s, there is no mention of it in this document.

Let’s take a look at local weather data for the month of April 2022. All data are gathered from my home weather devices. The high temperature for April was 66.6˚F, the low was 25, and the mean for the month was 44.9. The all-time high was 92 way back in 1936, the same year the all-time low occurred at 20˚F. The all-time mean is 49.

Overall, a cool April. Precipitation for April was 0.65 inches. I measured 0.24 inches on the 21st of the month, the greatest amount. Mean precipitation for April is 0.85 inches. The largest amount for April was 2.31 inches back in 1948.

On May 15th we will be treated to a Full Moon. It’s called the Flower Moon. Some other names that have been used are Corn Planting Moon and Milk Moon. May’s full moon also comes with a total eclipse. The western rim of the moon begins to enter the dark umbral shadow about 8:25 p.m. our time. The moon will slowly slide into the umbra, becoming completely immersed at about 9:11 p.m. The eclipse will be over by 11:50 p.m. Viewers in the West will see most of the eclipse with the moon rising eclipsed. This will be a three-and-a-half-hour event. Enjoy!