Every little drop helps
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, April 13th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
EASTERN OREGON – As blizzard-like conditions created havoc on Interstate 84 and other roads in the region, spring turned to winter. There were spinouts, crashes, breakdowns, and power outages. But, more importantly, there was much needed moisture. National Weather Service Hydrologist Marilyn Lohmann said while it didn’t erase the drought, it did help with snowpack.
“It’s really good for the snowpack,” she said. “Over the last couple of days, we were seeing much colder temperatures, so we were seeing snow even down at the valley floors. A lot of the locations in the mountains saw anywhere between 12 to 20 inches over the Blues.”
Lohmann said that it won’t totally make up for the winter’s lack of snow, but it will help. In addition, the colder temperatures will help the mountains hold onto the snow a little bit longer. A lot more precipitation will have to fall before we see drought relief, however.
“Overall, I don’t think we’ll see much change,” she said. “Here along the foothills, we’ve gotten some better conditions in the last couple of months than a lot of the area. We’ve seen some small improvements. We really need to make sure that we get the precipitation that we normally do for April and May, but I don’t think we’ll see a lot of improvement.”
