Record Heat, Low Rainfall Drive OR Drought, Even On Pacific Coast; 2018 Hottest Ever For Portland
Oregon is known by many as a wet place, with persistent rain and forests enveloped in fog. This year is different. In a matter of just six weeks over the summer, one-third of Oregon was instead enveloped by extreme drought. That figure comes from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), a branch of NOAA. The results also rank 86 percent of Oregon in severe drought territory, a slightly less severe category.
The Oregon drought this year is most striking because it covers many coastal areas known historically as some of the wettest in the country. The town of Florence, nearly smack in the middle of the state’s Pacific coast, has received only 33in of rain so far this year. That would rank as a wet year for many areas of the West. But normal precipitation in Florence is 69in annually.
NIDIS estimates 3.8 million people in Oregon are experiencing drought conditions, which is 99 percent of the state’s population. “We have a pretty severe drought here in Oregon right now, partially due to the low snowpack last year, which really set the ball into motion,” said Kathie Dello, associate director of the Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University. “Now we’re into the rainy season, and it’s not raining.” That low snowpack was due, in part, to higher temperatures. Portland, for instance, saw its hottest year in recorded history, with more days above 90 degrees than ever before.
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https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2018/10/24/oregon-already-struggling-with-drought-may-have-still-more-to-come
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