‘There’s no crisis’: Cliff Mass blasts media, officials for claiming WA ‘drought emergency’

Cliff Mass, an Atmospheric Sciences Professor at the University of Washington, is calling out the media for inaccurate drought emergency claims.

Mass said that although a recent Seattle Times article stated that Washington declared a statewide drought emergency, the outlet is not telling the full story.

“There’s no crisis and there’s no emergency,” Mass said. “Right now, in fact, the reservoirs for Seattle were above normal. That’s true of many of the other cities around here. The only place it’s a little below normal is the reservoir system for the Yakima River, and that’s about 75% of normal. It’s above what it was last year. There’s no crisis going on.”

Cliff Mass denies ‘drought emergency’

He emphasized that being below normal is not a “crisis.”

“We’re in a situation now that, you know, we’re warming slowly. That’s true. The last year or two has been a bit drier than normal. But it’s not a crisis. It’s not an emergency. It’s within the range that we’ve seen many times in the past,” Mass explained.

Mass added that officials calling the situation an emergency sparks unnecessary fear.

“I think that they’re harmful because they’re giving people the feeling that we’re in a situation we’re not, and that they should worry, when they have no need to worry,” he said.

Listen to the full conversation below.

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