Nearly all of Washington has been declared in a drought – excepts parts of Puget Sound.
Author: Glenn Farley
Updated: 6:03 PM PDT July 16, 2021
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a drought emergency across the entire state this week, except for parts of three counties: King, Snohomish and Pierce. Those counties didn’t get any more rain than the others, so why isn’t the entire state in a drought?
The reason comes down to water storage. Specifically, it’s the ability of those counties to capture and store enough of the runoff from the near-record snowpack last winter to maintain their water supply above 75% of normal. That means in Seattle, Everett and Tacoma, it’s pretty much business as usual.