YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) - Washington state farmers are expected to receive a full water supply this irrigation season in the Yakima Basin based on an early assessment, a state water management agency said.
The state Bureau of Reclamation announced that snowpack in the mountains is about 100% of normal and basin reservoirs are at 107% of normal for this time of year, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported Thursday.
“If we stay relatively normal for the next month, we’ll be in really good shape come April 1,” said Scott Pattee, water supply specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We are in better shape than we have been in a while.”
The first water report of the year is released in March, and a more precise one is released in April, meaning the situation could still change, said Chris Lynch, river operations engineer with the reclamation bureau.
Warmer weather without increasing spring precipitation could drastically change the situation, even though the water supply forecast is better than this time last year, he said.
“The spring still holds a lot of potential for precipitation and weather variations,” Lynch said. “So that’s where you can actually hold or make some gains, or you can drift back. We’ve seen all three of those scenarios play out.”
Last year, the March forecast predicted supply at 90% of normal in the basin. But a dry spring lowered that prediction to 74% of normal supply, agency officials said.
The Yakima River Basin feeds 725 square miles (1,877 square kilometers) of irrigated farmland.
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