Current Impacts
To see or report current drought impacts, please visit the Drought Impacts Toolkit, where you can find impacts from media in the Drought Impact Reporter and from citizen scientists and other volunteer observers under Condition Monitoring Observations.
Historic Impacts
No two states have the same experience during a drought. Below are examples of some of the impacts experienced in Washington in the past. The process for developing this example impact table is described in Noel, M., Bathke, D., Fuchs, B., Gutzmer, D., Haigh, T., Hayes, M., Poděbradská, M., Shield, C., Smith, K. and Svoboda, M., 2020. Linking drought impacts to drought severity at the state level. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101(8), pp.E1312-E1321. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0067.1. To view a more complete record, and to filter impacts by drought severity, sector and season, check out the interactive State Impacts Tool.
| Category | Examples of historically observed impacts |
|---|
| D0 | Ski season is shortened, visitation is lower |
| D1 | Fire danger increases |
| Possible dust storms |
| River flow is low |
| D2 | Fishing closures are issued for rivers; tubing and rafting season is shortened; fish are stressed; fish rescues begin |
| Number of wildfires increases; grasses are brown |
| Producers feed cows earlier; silage is harder to find |
| River water is warm; rationed water supplies are inadequate for irrigators; water theft occurs; voluntary water conservation is requested |
| West Nile Virus cases increase |
| Wheat and corn are stunted; harvest is early |
| D3 | Crop and hop yields are poor; wheat protein content is higher |
| Domestic wells are running dry; lake and pond levels are low |
| Hydropower production is low |
| Tourism is reduced and recreation is altered |
| Toxic algae blooms increase; oxygen content is low; shellfish areas close; spawning areas are difficult for fish to reach; fish death is widespread |
| Unprecedented wildfires occur; call is issued for citizen volunteers to fight fires; firefighting funds are running out |
| Water and forest ecosystems are altered; bears look for forage at lower elevations |