Ag Weather Impacts

Ag Weather Impacts

Good news: The intense stormy weather pattern we've seen these last two weeks is going to relax this weekend. The flow will become more northerly bringing drier but cold air across the Columbia Basin. There will be isolated light snow showers tomorrow and again Tuesday and Wednesday, but most of the snow will be in the mountains. Plan on temperatures continuing to average below normal the rest of the month. By now, most places should be averaging 5 to 10 degrees warmer than the peak cold that normally occurs back in late December to mid January. The temperatures into early next week however will be 10 to 15 degrees below normal, so even colder than what we usually expect for January. Fortunately, winds are forecast to be under 10 mph and livestock cold stress should be rather low. How as all this snow affected the mountain snowpack conditions? The Yakima and Columbia Basins have improved to between 90 and 100 percent of the usual amount for this time of year and the Walla Walla and Umatilla watersheds jumped to 120 percent and these are the best of all the eastern Oregon and eastern Washington basins. Yesterday, it was announced by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center that a weak El Nino status has finally been achieved with a 55 percent chance of continuing through Spring. Due to the El Nino's weak nature at just barely above the half degree Celsius threshold, the CPC does not expect widespread global impacts.
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