Skagit County drought worsens

The drought conditions for Skagit County? Not good. The U.S. Drought Monitor’s website’s weekly report lists almost the entire county in drought by area, 97.5%.

Greater La Conner is in a small coastal slice of moderate drought, as is the Cascades region. Together, 11.4% of the county is in moderate drought. The rest of the county is in severe drought, 86.1%, except for the northeasternmost corner, 2.5%, measured as abnormally dry.

Skagit River streamflow at the Mount Vernon bridge was measured as record low. The definition: “Estimated streamflow is the lowest value recorded at this gauge on this day of the year.“

Precipitation the last 30 days, through June, was “0% to 25% of the historical average for this location, compared to the same date range from 1991–2020” the Monitor reports. The last rain recorded at the Washington State University weather station on Memorial Highway was 0.24 inches June 18-20. There has been no recorded rainfall since, though there were brief showers July 12 and July 17 in La Conner.

On July 11 the United States Department of Agriculture assessed “this county is designated not in drought,” for agriculture while reporting: 9,076 acres of haylage in drought; 8,150 acres of hay in drought; 3,286 acres of wheat in drought; and 18,864 cattle in drought in Skagit County, all estimates.

The number of people in Skagit County are affected by drought has increased 58% since July 3, estimated July 11.

The trends are all for continuing drought. The June 30 seasonal forecast was for the drought to persist for all of Skagit and Whatcom counties in a north-south band east of Puget Sound. This forecast is updated the last day of each month.

. The U.S. Drought Monitor depicts the location and intensity of drought across the country using five classifications, from abnormally dry to four levels of increasing drought.

The U.S. Drought Monitor is a joint effort of the National Drought Mitigation Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Weekly News will track the county’s drought status until the drought ends.