As this balmy winter rolls on, local fears of a dry summer may be gaining steam after the federal government declared Jefferson County a drought disaster area and released troubling precipitation data.
Maura Casey, Great Falls-based warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, last week ranked the county at D1 drought, the least intense of four levels. Local streamflows running are a bit high, but due to potentially worrying early melt.
“It looks good right now, but the expected loss of snowpack down the line is not expected to be beneficial,” she told the Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting, adding that higher elevations mostly remained at 75-100% of median.
