....and we have a DROUGHT!

Would you believe Seattle and Washington State have been officially declared a drought? After the wettest winter California has seen in 105 years, we now have a drought...this is very dangerous for our fire season, our poor farmers (!) and this means a lot more coyotes and critters coming down from the hills to forage for food. Our State hasn't had a drought in over 30 years. This is an extreme one up here now. Here's how it looks:

This is Crystal Mountain ski area down the street from my house. There should be 80-90" snow pack by now......


....and this is a local river, yes the bottom of the river:


We expect water-rationing and we aren't allowed to wash our cars.

I feel your pain Eddie. We've been in a drought here in Colorado for about 4 years now. Luckily, we have been getting average or above average rain/snowfall in the past year so we are slowly coming out of it. But the official word is that the drought has been so severe that we would need about 5 years of above average precipitation to be completely out of drought. So we still have watering restrictions, you can only wash your car at car washes that recycle their water, and everyone is asked to conserve as much as possible. Here's the worst irony...everyone did what they were asked by conserving water, so Denver Water over doubled their rates because they weren't making enough money. So now we're paying more for less water!

Don't you know it! We'll have to borrow water from Idaho if the Columbia River won't be enough. I don't mind conserving at all. But we're known for the wettest spot in the U.S., so it's so ironic, don't you think.

We heard about the one in Florida, too. My biggest fear is the influx of coyotes, that is my only personal concern.

I've heard from all of my family and friends (I grew up in Western WA) that it's been extremely dry this season. It's bad news for a lot of us in the West, since so many states get their water from states like WA!

Meanwhile, here in SoCal, it's unusually green. A lot of people are worried about the upcoming summer...lots of new undergrowth + dry summer = scary fire season.

To early to hear any predictions. Depends on snow melt-I think we should be okay but last May/June got lots of rain then hardly anything in July-Sept. We had a big snow melt a couple of weeks ago so we only have 2-3" on ground. Last "big" snow coming before next weekend. Hopefully weather should start to warm up. Its been a cooler than normal March-except for last sunday when it got to 47 degrees.