Orange means Severe Drought. Red means Extreme Drought. Both mean were screwed.
  • US Drought Monitor
  • Orange means "Severe Drought." Red means "Extreme Drought." Both mean we're screwed.

Here's something to ponder as you prepare to be fried by temps above 100 degrees and Portland demonstrators fight to keep an oil ship from plundering the Arctic: the entire state of Oregon is now experiencing severe drought for the first time since at least 2000.

That's according to the people of the University of Nebraska's US Drought Monitor which tracks precipitation and other factors throughout the country. In the parlance of the Drought Monitor, "severe drought" means: "Crop or pasture losses likely; water shortages common; water restrictions imposed." More meaningful than those anodyne descriptors, though, is the fact that the whole state is now experiencing problems at least that bad. Nearly half of Oregon is actually classified one step worse: "extreme drought" ("major crop/pasture losses; widespread water shortages or restrictions.")

This is the most widespread drought Oregon's seen since the Drought Monitor began in late 1999. The next worst drought was in summer 2001, when roughly 98 percent of the state was classified as having a "severe drought." At that time, more than half the state was classified as having "extreme drought." There have also been instances in the past of Oregon experiencing "exceptional drought," the monitor's worst designation, though the problems were more localized at that time.

In actuality, Oregon's not all that far behind typical years in overall precipitation, according to Climatologist Brian Fuchs, who helps put together the Drought Monitor. The problem is that the winter snows Oregon relies on to accumulate, then trickle continuously into the state's watersheds over the course of the year, never came. An insanely warm winter meant it was all rain this year, and rain passes through the water system quickly.

Since it's summer, of course, we're pretty much locked in.

"The West is probably not going to see potential for any large improvement until we hit October," Fuchs says.

Portland's water levels, blessedly, haven't been much affected by all of this, but it's serious.

The Oregon Department of Forestry says wildfire danger is soaring this summer, and Governor Kate Brown is sending out weekly warnings about the dire situation Oregon faces. She's even created a website to communicate the perils this summer may bring (even as she refuses to slow down a deal that would cede millions and millions of gallons of drought-stricken Hood River County's water to Nestle.)