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Drought Information Statement
Issued by NWS Spokane, WA
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Drought Information Statement
National Weather Service Spokane WA
1112 AM PDT Thu Oct 7 2021

...EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT SHRINKS ACROSS NORTHEAST WASHINGTON AND NORTH
IDAHO PANHANDLE...

.SYNOPSIS: According to the October 5th release of the U.S. Drought
Monitor, rainfall from mid August through September continues to
improve the drought conditions across northeast Washington and the
far northern Idaho Panhandle. There was a retraction of the
Exceptional Drought (D4) in parts of Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille
and Spokane counties for Washington and in Bonner and Kootenai
counties for north Idaho.

Exceptional (D4) drought still persists across much of the Inland
Northwest. In Washington, this includes the counties of: Lincoln,
Adams, Asotin, Garfield, Whitman, and parts of Grant, Spokane, and
Stevens. This summer has been the first time in 20 years that the
Drought Monitor has had D4 in Washington state. In Idaho, this
includes the counties of: Benewah, Latah, Nez Perce, Lewis, and
parts of Kootenai and Shoshone. Extreme drought (D3) continues
across parts of central and northeast Washington including parts of
eastern Douglas, eastern Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, and Pend Oreille
counties and in north Idaho across parts of eastern Shoshone,
Kootenai, Bonner, and Boundary counties. Severe drought (D2) is
noted near the Cascade crest in the western portions of Chelan and
Okanogan counties and parts of Boundary county in Idaho.

The lack of significant precipitation last spring led to record
dryness across much of the Inland Northwest through the summer. This
exacerbated the short term drought conditions across the region,
while parts of the lower Columbia Basin still felt the effects of
long term drought since 2020. The recording breaking heat wave in
late June and July made conditions even worse as multiple stations
recorded their hottest temperature on record.

A Drought Emergency was issued by the Washington Department of
Ecology for much of the state in July 2021.

 .SUMMARY OF IMPACTS:

Agricultural impacts...

Eastern Washington... In the dryland agriculture, record low winter
wheat, spring wheat, barley and hay were reported this last summer
with historic low yields. Spring wheat did not grow and was very
short in parts of Lincoln, Adams, Grant, Spokane, Whitman, Asotin,
Garfield, Stevens, Pend Oreille and Okanogan counties. Grazing and
pasture lands were low and dried up. Livestock farmers were
mitigating their herds because of lack of food and water. There were
livestock deaths due to the heat in late June. Grass regrowth shut
down and there were little to no late pasture cuttings. For the
state of Washington, soil moisture reports were at records low
levels.

The mid August through September precipitation coupled with cooler
temperatures led to improvements to topsoil moisture especially in
parts of north central and northeast Washington. Since the end of
the September, over 70% of the new winter wheat crop has been
planted across the region.

North Idaho... Reports from Benewah, Kootenai, Nez Perce and Lewis
counties indicated that winter wheat was less than 50% of normal
this last summer. Hay was about a half to two thirds crop loss. The
summer heatwaves did lead to animal deaths in some areas.

The mid August through September precipitation was welcome. After
the below average yields of wheat, over 60% of the new winter wheat
crop had been planted by the end of September.

Wildfires Impacts...

Dry lighting events in July and mid August ignited multiple
wildfires across the tinder dry landscape, both grasslands and
timber. Breezy dry winds increased fire spread and acreage for many
of the fires, along with increasing the coverage of smoke in the
region this last summer. The wildfires were reported across portions
of Garfield, Asotin, Lewis, Nez Perce, Shoshone, Bonner, Spokane,
Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties.

The recent rainfall and cooler temperatures have helped slow the
activity on many local wildfires. The significant wildland fire
potential outlook looks low for October across the region.

Hydrologic impacts...

Stream flows were running below to much below normal levels
regionwide through August. The recent rainfalls in mid August into
September did help boost flows especially across north central and
northeast Washington along with the northern part of the Idaho
Panhandle. The low levels continue across parts of Columbia Basin to
the Idaho Palouse.

The new Water Year started on October 1st and the outlook for water
supply across the region looks optimistic for the coming year.

Drought Impact Reports can be found via the U.S. Drought Portal in
the related websites section

.LOCAL DROUGHT CONDITIONS AND OUTLOOK:

Water Year 2021 precipitation, (October 1, 2020 - September 30,
2021) was below normal for much of the Inland Northwest. The
exception being the east slopes of the Cascades where winter
mountain snowfall was above normal. Record dryness was reported in
many areas of the region from March through August.

Temperatures were above normal across the Inland Northwest for the
2021 Water Year. Record heat has been observed across most portions
of the Inland Northwest for June and July.

The Climate Prediction Center`s outlook for October leans toward
seasonal temperatures and increase chances of precipitation, and
this trend continues for the three month outlook of October through
December 2021. A La Nina Watch remains in effect through the
upcoming winter season.

The Seasonal Drought Outlook indicates that drought conditions will
remain but show some improvements in the coming months.

.NEXT ISSUANCE DATE: Updates to this product are generally made on a
monthly basis, although additional updates will be made on an as-
needed basis.

.RELATED WEB SITES:

U.S. Drought Portal: www.drought.gov
US Drought Monitor: www.droughtmonitor.unl.edu
Western Region Climate Center: /www.wrcc.dri.edu
Climate Prediction Center: www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov
National Interagency Coordination Center: www.nifc.gov
USGS Streamflows: www.waterwatch.usgs.gov
NWS Water Supply Forecasts: www.nwrfc.noaa.gov
US Army Corps of Engineers:  www.usace.army.mil
NRCS Water Supply Forecasts: www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov
Idaho Department of Water Resources: www.idwr.idaho.gov
Idaho Climate Office: www.uidaho.edu/extension/climate-services
Washington Department of Ecology: www.ecology.wa.gov
Washington Climate Office: www.climate.washington.edu

.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The Drought Monitor is a multi-agency effort involving NOAA`s
National Weather Service and National Climatic Data  Center, the
U.S. Department Of Agriculture, State and Regional Centers,
Climatologists, and the National Drought Mitigation Center.
Information for this statement has been gathered from the NWS and
FFA observation sites, State Agencies, USDA, NRCS, USACE AND USGS.

.CONTACT INFORMATION:

If you have questions or comments about this Drought Information
Statement or have drought impacts to report, please contact:

National Weather Service
2601 N Rambo Road
Spokane, WA 99224
PHONE...509-244-0110
w-otx.webmaster@noaa.gov

$$
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office
