After a cold and wet December, that brought lots of precipitation and snow fall across the west, the weather pattern flipped across much of the lower 48 states of the US around the second week of January. Our current 3 week mostly dry period in the Medford, Oregon NWS Forecast area has caused us to begin to fall behind in precipitation for the Water Year, which begins October 1st. While we expect a cool down and some precipitation early next week, the forecast for February is uncertain. Please note that we still have significant water deficits to overcome to climb out of our ongoing drought situation, which is particularly extreme to exceptional in the Upper Klamath Basin.

Cold and wet conditions in December rapidly built a strong snowpack across the forecast area, but recent inversions, which bring warmer conditions to higher elevations than lower elevations, have combined with unusually dry weather this month to cause the snowpack to wane and fall below normal across portions of the area. While shaded northerly aspects have been able to retain the snow due to low wet bulb temperatures, snowpack has melted and/or sublimated some on southerly aspects. Cooler average temperatures, especially at mid-higher elevations, are expected early next week as well as the possibility of some light precipitation. Check out the Climate Prediction Center’s website for the latest long term outlooks. An update to the February forecast will be made on their website on the afternoon of Monday, January 31st.