‘It doesn’t make any sense’: Cliff Mass says Washington drought emergency should be dropped immediately

The Washington State Department of Ecology issued a drought declaration due to low snowpack and multiple years of precipitation deficits. But Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington (UW) and author of the Cliff Mass Weather Blog, said it should be dropped immediately.

Mass told “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio the drought emergency doesn’t make sense because although the state’s snowpack was at 50%, precipitation was above normal.

“That’s the key point. If you figure out how much water came from the sky, our region got more than usual, and so we have these big reservoirs, which allowed us to store a lot of the water,” Mass explained.

Mass pointed to heavy rain in December and an atmospheric river in March that filled Washington’s reservoirs to above-normal levels. He noted that much of Eastern Washington’s water comes from the Columbia River, which is in good shape thanks to snow and rain in British Columbia.

The one exception had been Yakima, but Mass said even those reservoirs have since caught up and are now full.

Mass says drought emergency numbers don’t add up

KIRO host John Curley laid out the state’s reasoning: the reservoirs hold roughly 1.1 million acre-feet, but the basin needs about 2.1 million. Snowpack is supposed to make up the difference, but it’s sitting at only 50%. And even though precipitation hit 104% of normal, the state said that still wasn’t enough and declared an emergency drought in April.

Mass reiterated that the numbers don’t make sense.

“They keep on doing this, they say, ‘OK, the amount that they store in the reservoirs is only enough for half the water they need.’ That’s the claim. But you’ve got to look at it more carefully,” Mass said. “If the reservoirs are full in July, there’s enough water for July and August, which are the crucial months you need it. Earlier in the year, there was still some snowpack. The snowpack wasn’t zero — it was 50%, so there’s a lot of water from that.”

“And even in a normal year, we don’t save all the water for agriculture,” he continued. “A lot of it goes out to Columbia. So we don’t need 100% of the snowpack, and there’s also rain that goes on in the spring, and that’s supplying water as well. So we have rain during the spring and early summer, and we do have some snowpack, so that’s supplying the rest of the water that’s needed, so there is no big crisis.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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