Low snowpack affects future water supply

Washington State snowpack is melting earlier than usual, according to data from the fourth 2015 forecast by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“Seventy-four percent of our long-term monitoring sites have set new record low snowpack,” said the organization’s Water Supply Specialist, Scott Pattee. “March was warm and dry in most of the West; as a result, snow is melting earlier than usual.”

Historically, April 1 is the peak in terms of snowpack. This year, the peak came earlier. The April 1 statewide readings were 22 percent of normal, shatterin...