2026 has been a tough water year across the Pacific Northwest, and the latest late-spring numbers are officially in. The picture isn’t good: many of our high-altitude snowpack monitoring stations have completely melted out weeks ahead of schedule.
As we head into June, our statewide snowpack sits at a mere 19 percent of the median for the end of May—placing this water year in the dismal 7th percentile of historical records.
How did we end up this way despite seeing some massive winter storms? It all comes down to temperature. December saw an extraordinary amount of precipitation, but it was quite warm with record flooding in some spots because of warm atmospheric rivers. Instead of building a healthy snowpack to carry us through the summer, that moisture fell as a greater proportion of rain. Winter snowfall stayed well below normal throughout winter, setting us up for this early melt-out.
As we look ahead to the summer months, the status of water supply reserviors and updated streamflow forecasts paint somewhat different pictures, west vs. east of the Cascade crest.
- West of the Cascades: Some good news. Knowing that the snowpack was low, water managers did an excellent job capturing runoff during our heavy winter rain events. Because many reservoirs are in solid shape right now, there ought to be enough water to meet most large municipal needs west of the mountains this summer. (Smaller reservoirs and water supply systems could fare worse, however.)
- East of the Cascades: While these reservoirs are also high right now, these water supplies really rely on continuous, slow late-spring and summer snowmelt runoff to keep rivers flowing and agricultural needs satisfied. With much of the mountain snow gone and the higher elevations dwindling quickly, water supply shortages are far more likely for these areas as we head into the heat of summer.
Between now and September, stream flows across both eastern and western Washington are forecast to run between just 35% and 86% of normal. When you rank these projections against the historical record, most of our river systems are forecast to have stream flows among the worst five to 15 years of the historical record (which goes back 77 years).
Several rivers, including the Nooksack and Wynoochee, could see record-low streamflow for the April-September time period.
In fact, only the Columbia River is forecast to have near-average streamflow through the summer.
(You can explore the interactive streamflow percentages and historical rankings directly via the NOAA Northwest River Forecast Center Maps.)
As far as summer precipitation, we’re entering our drier months of the year, and we are also expecting above-average temperatures to be more the norm through the summer months. Hotter temperatures overall would tend to dry things out even more quickly!
©2026 Cox Media Group
