Tag Archive for: Pacific Northwest

San Francisco Could See Its First Rainfall Since January as a Potentially Wetter California Weather Pattern Takes Shape

/in , , /by /The Weather Channelby Linda Lam

Much needed rain will finally return to California and will likely end a month-plus dry streak in San Francisco and Sacramento. Dry conditions have prevailed across most of California since late January due to the upper-level pattern.  A strong area of high pressure aloft near California has pushed the jet stream and storm track northward into the Pacific Northwest.

The persistence of this pattern has resulted in drought conditions during the wet season. Nearly 70% of the Golden State is abnormally dry, and about a third of the state is in moderate drought, according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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Water Reservoirs Below Average in Cascades

/in , /by /Capital Pressby Dan Wheat

Coming off a summer of moderate drought with some crop losses, the five Cascade Mountain reservoirs serving irrigators in the Yakima Basin have less water than normal and the winter snowpack outlook is uncertain.

“We are in an El Nino neutral which would mean normal conditions and we would be fairly optimistic. No one has been calling for a dry or mild winter so we have no cause to think it will be,” said Chris Lynch, hydrologist for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Yakima. However, he added, a warm water body off the Gulf of Alaska, reminiscent of one there prior to the drought of 2015, could result in more moderate temperatures and less snow.

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