Drought not over, state officials say

Don’t let a bit of rain in the last few weeks fool you. We’re still in drought, state officials said. Extreme drought in Eastern and Central Washington. Slightly better severe drought in much of Western Washington. Winter rain and snow is expected to be below average, too, so Washington might start 2016 in worse shape than it started 2015. “This historic drought is not over,” Maia Bellon, Ecology Department director, said. The combination of the El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific, coupled with a separate area of warm water off the Pacific Coast that meteorologists call “the Blob” means the winter of 2015-16 is expected to be warmer than normal, and drier, State Climatologist Nick Bond said Toasty, although unlikely to be as extreme as last year, he said, with snow pack at least 70 percent of normal. There is, however, a 10 percent to 15 percent chance this winter will be as warm as last winter, Bond added. Recent rains have improved the stream flows on some rivers to near normal levels, Cindi Barton of the U.S. Geological Survey, said. Streams fed by glacial and snow melt remain low. Flows are worse than previous drought years of 2001 and 2005. Low stream flows and high temperatures killed an estimated 1.5 million juvenile fish in state fisheries. Agriculture officials are still trying to calculate farm losses, but the drought has resulted in smaller apples and berries. “Right now, nature seems upside down,” said Bellon, who said some cherry trees in the Zillah area are blossoming.