SPOKANE, Wash. — As we head into the month of May, the weather outlook for Washington state favors warm and dry weather. And that's not ideal for the drought situation and locations already running dry.
The first Drought Monitor issued at the start of the month has 10% of the state, mainly in Okanogan and Chelan Counties listed as "Moderate Drought", the first drought stage used by the U.S. Drought Monitor. The category below drought, "Abnormally Dry" covers 69% of the state, nearly the entirety of western Washington and the mountainous areas in northern Washington.
Spokane and the Palouse in southeastern Washington is not listed as dry. This is likely due to the snowy February and very wet first half of April we experienced.
May's forecast is for drier than average conditions across the state, with greater magnitude and confidence for western Washington compared to the Inland Northwest and Spokane area.
Since the western half of the state is already running dry, any further trend in this direction will result in drought conditions expanding for this area. A similar trend is possible for the northern tier of the Inland Northwest and parts of the Columbia Basin. But Spokane and southeastern Washington will likely not revert to a drought this month.
The categories of drought are defined as Abnormally Dry (stage below drought), Moderate (most mild), Severe, Extreme, and Exceptional (most extreme).
