Oregon drought

From Wenatchee, Washington, to Owyhee, Oregon, farmers and ranchers are making tough choices about water. Poor winter snowpack throughout the region is to blame. Farmers and ranchers are looking at a dry spring, summer and fall irrigation season.

Eastern Washington is in for another hot, dry summer. But – spring rains mean the west side of the state will no longer face a drought.

Some stunted wheat fields won’t see the combine this summer. Cattle operators are severely cutting back their herds for lack of grass. Little moisture since February in wide swaths of the Northwest is to blame. And drought is deepening across the West, with federal drought maps showing massive and growing areas of red.