There’s more to these pleasant, sunny days than meets the eye.
Yes, this is summer and it’s supposed to be hot and dry. But this year we’re much drier than normal and, fresh off major droughts in 2024 and 2023, the effects of these lingering dry spells is compounding.
You’re not in danger of losing food, water or electricity, officials say. But the people who work behind the scenes to keep things running have been taking notice of these worsening droughts, and they’re concerned.
Last month, Seattle saw less than half an inch of precipitation (0.42 inches, to be precise), marking the fifth driest June on record. Drought conditions now cover more than half the state and climbing. Reservoir levels are dropping and water consumption is rising, both faster than normal.
And the forecast doesn’t call for improvement in the weeks ahead, said Karin Bumbaco, deputy state climatologist. Rather, the driest part of our year is just getting started.
This isn’t normal, climatologists, hydrologists and other experts repeatedly warn. But it’s going to be.
Our region’s summers are starting sooner, ending later, seeing less rainfall and higher temperatures. On top of that, warmer winters mean less snowpack to offset these hot, dry months.
Places like the Roza Irrigation District, which covers 72,000 acres and some of Washington’s most fertile land, had to shut off their water supply early last year to conserve the resource. While they don’t have to turn off the faucets this year, Director Scott Revell said farmers will still only see about 45% of their normal water supply.
That is, as Revell put it in a text message, “very bad.”
The growing season for farmers in the district will end about 3 1/2 weeks early because of the shortage, Revel said. That’s a big deal for wine grapes, some hops and apples, he said.
During these types of droughts, Roza farmers have relied heavily on state relief funds.
Washington’s drought emergency declaration this spring (the state’s third in a row) unlocks about $4.5 million for such recovery efforts. But that’s a drop in the bucket for the Yakima River Basin’s multibillion-dollar agricultural industry, not to mention farmers and other suffering communities across the rest of the state.
While the state’s drought emergency includes portions of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett aren’t included. Utilities for these cities are in decent shape, relatively speaking.
For the third year in a row, mountain snowpack has failed to fill Seattle City Light’s reservoirs in the North Cascades. Never before has the utility had such poor conditions three years in row, said Siobhan Doherty, the utility’s power supply officer.
Those reservoirs are crucial for the utility’s largest series of hydropower plants, called the Skagit Project. City Light, which provides electricity to nearly a million people, also has a much smaller hydropower operation on the Pend Oreille River, Doherty said.
So far, this year is the fourth driest on record for the Skagit reservoirs, Doherty said. Last year was the third driest and 2023 was the eighth driest. The Pend Oreille operation is faring only a little better.
“It’s pretty sobering,” Doherty said.
The utility isn’t at risk of losing power over the summer, Doherty said, but the ongoing drought will be reflected in people’s power bills.
Early spring warming melted off much of the mountain snowpack back in 2023, forcing the utility to burn through more than $70 million of its emergency fund buying power off the market at a higher rate. In an attempt to build back that emergency account, it imposed a 4% surcharge on customers’ monthly bills in early 2024. But persisting drought conditions mean the money is accumulating slowly and so the surcharge is expected to remain in place at least through the year, Doherty said.
Over at Seattle Public Utilities, conversations about water conservation started early this year, said Elizabeth Garcia, water resources planning supervisor. They filled the water provider’s largest reservoir, Chester Morse Lake, higher than normal this spring to give themselves a little extra buffer.
The utility has enough water for its customers, Garcia said. But its reservoirs can only hold so much water and as summers grow longer and hotter, SPU must stretch its resources further.
The utility’s water supply will support its growing customer base for decades to come, said Julie Crittenden, the utility’s water planning and program manager. But at some point, Seattle Public Utilities will be forced to find a new water source.
For the moment, SPU officials aren’t discussing voluntary water restrictions like the ones they imposed in late 2023 but Crittenden said the option remains one of the tools available if conditions worsen.
The region’s fate is not yet cemented for the summer, Garcia and Crittenden said. A few colder or rainy days can make quite a big difference. Much depends on the weather over the coming weeks and months.
