With the Exception of Oregon, Western Snowpack Not Looking Too Great Right now

What a difference a year makes! This time last year, Washington had just had its driest November ever recorded and was sitting at about 30% of average snowpack. Oregon, too was hurting, sitting at well below average. The rest of the west, especially Utah, were reveling in some of the best conditions in years, with snowpack way above average.

• Last season’s early December snowpack report: PNW Snowpack Suffering from One of Driest Novembers on Record | Rest of West Snowpack Above Average

Fast forward 12-months and roles are reversed. Except for central Oregon, most of the west currently has below average snowpack for this time of year.

Utah, in particular, is hurting badly right now, with Colorado not far behind. 

What’s going on? What happened to the La Niña winter we were all stoked for in the Fall?

Fear not, the season is still young, and as one of our writers wrote earlier in the week, the pattern is about to shift:

As you can see, even in the next 10 days, this pattern is beginning to shift to a typical winter flow. In my opinion, using several long-range models and historical data, this marks the beginning of La Niña 2020 falling into a consistent winter flow.