Washington State Agricuture is Doing Well in 2026

For much of this year, some in the media and online have warned about drought and heat, predicting serious negative consequences for Washington State agriculture.     

The Drought Monitor website, often quoted in the press, has drought, some extreme, over eastern Washington.  The site warns of substantial negative impacts!

The headlines in many outlets have been apocalyptic; here are just a few:

The truth is very different from these scary predictions.  

There was sufficient water for agriculture this year.   

Harvests are near normal and in some cases above normal.

Let me prove this to you.

Washington wheat yields in 2026 will be 20% ABOVE normal.  

The barley harvest?   97% of normal this year!

The very important apple crop?  Very good news!

It is estimated to be down only 2% from last year's record-breaking harvest (see below), and forecasts call for exceptional quality.  I look forward to the crunch of a good apple!

Cherries?

They suffered a bit from a spring cold wave, resulting in a decline of around 15% in volume.  However, the industry reports that fruit quality, size, and flavor have remained exceptional throughout the season, and prices have remained favorable for the growers.

I would go on, but you get the message: this year has been a very decent year for Washington State agriculture. The scary claims of major drought, wildfire, lack of snowpack, and global warming impacts were clearly not true.

One reason eastern Washington agriculture did so well was that there was sufficient water.

The water levels behind the Columbia's Grand Coulee Dam this year (blue line) were close to normal (red line).

Elevation Level Behind the Grand Coulee Dam

The Yakima Reservoir started well above normal in spring and ended ABOVE last year and modestly below normal.   Sufficient water for normal agricultural operations in the Yakima Valley.

Heavy rains and relatively cool temperatures of the past two weeks have caused surface soils and fuel moisture levels to increase greatly over the lowlands of eastern Washington. (See example below; the thick red line is observed, the gray area is the normal range.)

The bottom line is that Washington State agriculture is in very good shape this year, with the Chicken Little predictions proving to be false.