2023 Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Assessment

The purpose of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Assessment is to summarize the water year conditions and sector impacts as a resource for future management of drought and other climate extremes.

The authors gathered the information presented in this assessment in three main ways. The first was through two separate but similar annual Water Year Recap and Outlook meetings, one focused on Washington and Oregon and one on Idaho. The meeting objectives were to summarize the climate during the previous water year and to review climate and weather-related impacts of drought and other extremes on various sectors. Second, the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group distributed the Annual Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Survey. Third, the authors summarized Condition Monitoring Reports from Community, Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network volunteers and Condition Monitoring Observer Reports (CMOR) submitted to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) during Water Year 2023.

This report was a collaboration between the Office of the Washington State Climatologist, University of Washington Climate Impacts Group, Oregon Climate Service, Idaho Department of Water Resources, and NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System.

This is the fourth annual assessment. View the 2020, 2021, and 2022 Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Assessments.