Critical water supply basins in Idaho and Washington are experiencing exceptional snow drought, according to experts at a snow drought briefing Wednesday.

“The reason we have this snow drought is not due to a lack of precipitation,” Idaho Department of Water Resources Hydrologist David Hoekema said.  

Hoekema said this year is the first one in which Idaho is experiencing a “wet snow drought” due to extraordinarily warm weather.  

Water year 2026 is tracked from Oct. 1, 2025, to Sept. 30. At the end of December, he noted that precipitation conditions were pluvial (the opposite of drought). 

“The real problem is we’ve had precipitation come in as rain instead of snow,” Hoekema said.      

A snow drought this severe can have significant impacts and pose challenges for water supply planning. 

“We're very comparable to temperatures from 1934,” Hoekema said, noting that Idaho is currently just under the 1934 record. “That drought impacted almost the entire United States. This drought is significantly different in the Pacific Northwest in that we had a lot of rain throughout the winter until January.” 

The warmer temperatures also mean lower snowpack, raising concerns for tourism, agriculture and wildfires in the months ahead.

“There's very little chance of having a normal snowpack this year,” Hoekema said.  

Critical water-supply basins such as the Willamette, Deschutes, Yakima, Boise and Spokane are also experiencing severe snow drought. 

With only weeks remaining in the main period when Idaho typically gains peak snowpack, regional hydrologists like Hoekema are concerned about maximizing snowpack before the weather warms for spring. 

Looking at SNOTEL sites below 6,500 feet, this winter is setting many record lows across North Idaho. 

Hoekema said there are several places well above average for snowpack in the central mountains and the Upper Snake region. 

More precipitation is expected in the coming days and weeks. But whether the temperatures are cold enough to add to the snowpack remains unknown. 

Karin Bumbaco of the Washington State Climate Office said the warm weather’s damage to the snowpack has already occurred, and it’s unlikely nature will be able to reverse course at this point.

“We would need more snow than what we’ve seen in 90% of the historical records to get back to normal,” Bumbaco said. 

A snow-dominated hydrologic system is the primary source of water supplies in the western United States. 

Hoekema emphasized that snow is the primary reservoir for hydropower, irrigation, recreation and ecosystem functions in early summer.   

“Without the snow, reservoirs will have to start irrigation storage water deliveries early (which can result in late season water shortages), hydropower plants will be short of water in the late summer and ecosystems could face dangerously low summer flows resulting in poor ecosystem health,” Hoekema said.

    David Hoekema