Pacific Northwest Water Year 2024 Impacts Assessment

The purpose of the Pacific Northwest Water Year 2024 Impacts Assessment is to connect the water year conditions to sector-specific impacts to inform planning, response actions, and technical and scientific information needs. Ultimately, the assessment can be used 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. First, they held 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 climate extremes on various sectors. Second, the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and Washington State Climate Office distributed the Annual Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Survey. Third, the authors collected 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 during the 2024 water year. 

This report was a collaboration between the Washington State Climate Office, 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 fifth annual assessment. View the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 Pacific Northwest Water Year Impacts Assessments.