Oregon's 2025-26 Winter Was the Least Snowy on Record. The Bill Comes Due This Summer.

The Numbers Are Not Good

Oregon's snowpack — the state's natural water reservoir — hit historically low levels as of April 22, 2025, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service. It was the lowest snowpack ever measured in Oregon's recorded history.

The winter that caused it was tied for the warmest on record, going back to the 1890s, according to Central Oregon Daily. More rain fell instead of snow. Rain runs off. Snow sticks around and melts slowly through summer, feeding rivers, reservoirs, and farms. Oregon lost that slow-release water supply entirely.

Right now, 70% of Oregon is in moderate drought and 96% of the state is abnormally dry, per the latest U.S. Drought Monitor data cited by the NRCS.

This Isn't a One-Year Problem

The Oregon Water Resources Department is blunt about the bigger picture: the western United States is in the worst megadrought on record — a dryness period lasting decades. The time since the year 2000 is the driest 25-year stretch Oregon has seen in 1,200 years. For comparison, the Dust Bowl drought lasted less than a decade.

OSU climatologist Larry O'Neill told OPB back in March 2022 that Oregon had just experienced its third driest two-year stretch since 1895. Three years later, conditions haven't improved — they've compounded.

Each bad year stacks on the last. Groundwater doesn't fully recharge. Reservoirs don't fully refill. The margin for error shrinks.

What This Means for People

The practical consequences are already hitting Oregonians:

Water shortages. When snowpack disappears, streamflow craters. The Oregon Water Resources Department warns demand will exceed supply. That means farmers and ranchers face irrigation restrictions. Some already have. In Klamath Falls, farmers stood in dried-up fields in 2021 and 2022 because there was ZERO water to pump, according to OPB reporting at the time. That scenario is back on the table — and potentially worse.

Early wildfires. Low snowpack means dry vegetation earlier in the season. Central Oregon Daily reports wildfire risk is elevated heading into summer. In prior drought years, OPB reported that Central Oregon's fire season threatened to start as early as May. Without snowmelt keeping forests and grasslands damp into June, fire season gets longer and more dangerous.

Dead fish. Salmon and steelhead depend on cold, fast-moving snowmelt water. Warm, low streamflows are lethal. Anglers are already being advised by Central Oregon Daily to fish earlier in the season before water temperatures climb too high. Without snowmelt to keep streams cool, the ecosystem degrades in real time.

Empty wells. In exceptional drought conditions, residential wells dry up. This isn't hypothetical. NOAA's Britt Parker told OPB that some communities in the 2022 drought would have needed 150% to 200% of normal precipitation over two months just to recover. That level of rainfall never came. The same math applies now.

What the Media Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets like the New York Times are leading with climate change framing and leaving ordinary Oregonians — especially farmers and rural communities — without the practical information they need to prepare.

There's also a quiet story being missed entirely: Oregon's water management infrastructure is decades behind the problem. The state has known about the megadrought trend since at least 2000. Twenty-five years of compounding drought, and the policy response has been committee meetings and conservation PSAs. Where is the investment in water storage capacity? Where is the honest conversation about agricultural water rights that were allocated when the West was wetter?

Nobody in Salem wants to have that fight. So they don't.

What Comes Next

Oregon's worst snowpack year on record isn't a weather curiosity. It's the leading edge of a brutal summer for farmers who can't irrigate, rural residents whose wells may go dry, fish that won't survive warm rivers, and firefighters who'll be stretched thin by July.

The state has had 25 years of warning. The infrastructure and policy response hasn't matched the scale of the problem. Regular Oregonians — especially those outside Portland — will pay that bill this summer.