Nearly 80% of the Northwest is in a drought this summer, including North Idaho.

“We’re not only in a drought, we’re in an extreme to exceptional drought,” said Peter Youngblood, a Coeur d’Alene-based hydrologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Extreme" and "exceptional" are the two highest categories of drought classification. About 13% of the entire Northwest currently falls in these categories, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Extreme drought is most prevalent in North Idaho, Western Washington and Western Montana, the Idaho Capital Sun originally reported.

This particular drought has been developing over the last few years, Youngblood said and can be attributed primarily to below-normal snowpack, lower rainfall totals, and above-normal temperatures over the last five years.

North Idaho’s snowpack in 2024 only measured out to 68% of normal at its peak, which “set the stage for drought conditions,” he said.

Though this year’s snowpack was far better, with 90% of normal in the Coeur d’Alene basin and 100% in Pend Oreille, January and June both saw near-record lows in total precipitation.

Since 2020, there has been only one year of “normal” precipitation, Youngblood said.

The effect of drought on regional stream flow is already evident: most recent data from NOAA shows that more than 50% of measured stream flow sites across the Northwest are below normal, according to Idaho Capital Sun.

Youngblood said weakened stream flow is often a detriment to local ecosystems, with fish populations especially vulnerable to stress from warmer water temperatures.

He also emphasized that, though the region may not feel the effects of drought as directly due to a low dependency on reservoirs, current drought conditions are not without risk.

“While it’s still very green out, wildfire fuels are drier,” Youngblood said.

As for the short-term outlook, NOAA is forecasting above-normal temperatures for the next 30 days, and about equal chances of above- or below-normal precipitation.