What a difference a year makes. Abundant rainfall and cool temperatures have made Washington and Oregon east of the Cascades much greener.
I will show you.
Consider yesterday’s visible satellite images (see below)
2022
Now compare it to a year ago.
Year 2021
The difference is significant.
Do you see how much greener southwest Washington and northeastern Oregon are? Pay special attention to the east side of the Columbia River Basin.
To show the difference more clearly, let me zoom in on the southeastern part of Washington State. More green fields – and many of these are wheat and barley farms.
2022
Although there has been a lot of talk about drought and problems for dryland farmers in eastern Washington, the truth is that everything is looking good.
But don’t take my word for it. Here are the statistics available from Wheat Growers Association of Washington and collected by the Federal National Agricultural Statistics Service on June 19. The condition of spring wheat is 89% good or excellent, for barley 86% and peas 88% . Winter wheat that begins during the dry winter is 71% good or excellent.
Winter wheat:
1% is very poor
4% poor
24% fair
58% good
13% excellent
Spring Wheat:
0% is very poor
Poor 3%
8% fair
81% good
8% excellent
Barley:
0% is very poor
1% poor
13% fair
77% good
9% excellent
Edible dried peas:
0% is very poor
1% poor
11% fair
85% good
3% excellent
In short, the dryland police in eastern WA appear to be in good shape. There are some crops that have been damaged/slowly grown due to cool/wet conditions such as cherries.
After we wrap up this little heatwave tomorrow (Monday), normal conditions are forecast on both sides of the Cascades (see temperature forecasts for Seattle and Ephrata below). The low to mid 70s will dominate western Washington. Close to perfect. And I can note that there are NO significant fires anywhere in the Northwest.
Seattle Temperature
Ephrata temperature
