“It
doesn’t look good”
That
would probably be the consensus of
various stakeholders if asked to predict Central Oregon’s water situation for
the coming Spring and Summer.
True,
the snowpack is generally better than the 2017-2018 winter. But that gradual
improvement has a long way to go even if more snows and a cooler Spring are to
add significantly to already record low reservoir levels which feed river flows.
As
of mid-January the US Drought Monitor map showed all but a thin northwest sliver
of Deschutes County was in extreme drought, along with a large area of far
eastern Oregon. Most of the rest of the state was in severe drought and only
the far northeastern and a smlaller northwestern area had escaped a drought
designation. And those were categorized as abnormally dry.
A
year ago in January, even after a low snowpack, there were no areas of the state
classified as even abnorrmally dry or in a drought condition.
Maybe
the good news is that thus far no area of the state has been tagged as in “exceptional
drought,” the most serious of the monitor as reported by the US Department of
Agriculture in cooperation with other agencies.
In
the Upper Deschutes Basin at Wickiup Reservoir, the region’s largest, the level
as of Feb 4 was a 53% of capacity, or about 106,000 acre feet of water. Last
year at this time the reservoir held more than 176,000 acre feet. The average
is approximately 165,000.
Last
year’s water level was due in large part to the benefits gained from the the
previous 2016-2017 year’s extremely deep snowpack and ensuing runoff that kept
reservoir levels higher as the following “water year” began in the fall of 2017.
Comparing
current snowpacks with previous years, the SNOTEL reporting station at Three
Creeks Meadow south of Sisters reported a snow water equivalent of 8.6 inches
in the accumulated snow, only 67% of the 12.8 inches median for the period
1981-2010.
