After a wet December and January, Oregon is the most drought-free it has been since October of 2019, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Western Oregon saw well above-average precipitation in January, getting between 9 to 11 inches of rain in the Willamette Valley and elsewhere from a parade of storms that also dumped snow in the mountains.
That boost helped Oregon recover from a hot and dry summer that placed wide swaths of the state into drought.
The Drought Monitor map, released Feb. 1, shows 32% of Oregon is considered abnormally dry and 16% is in moderate drought. That might not seem like cause for celebration, but a year ago, 83% of Oregon was abnormally dry, 64% was in moderate drought and 39% was in severe drought. The drought only expanded as the state moved into one of the hottest and driest summers on record.
The Drought Monitor map has five categories of dryness — from abnormally dry to exceptional drought. The levels are determined by measurements of precipitation, snowpack, soil moisture and other factors against historic norms.