A huge snowpack in Canada provides a stark contrast to the nearly empty snowfields in southern Idaho where snowpack is at record lows this year and in eastern Oregon, with much of that area in drought or developing drought, according to an April National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report.
The Pacific Northwest has seen below-normal snow this season — and new research from Portland State University suggests that the region’s snowmelt-dependent water resources could face growing challenges in the years ahead as forest fires and winter rainstorms become more frequent.
Summer weather is arriving earlier, lasting longer and packing more heat than it used to—and it’s happening faster than scientists had previously measured.
During the 2024–2025 spawning season, endangered Central California Coast coho salmon migrated to Mendocino Coast rivers in numbers few scientists thought they would see in their careers. Monitoring teams estimated that more than 30,000 adult coho returned, double the previous season’s record-breaking return of 15,000 coho. These numbers represent a significant leap from the past decade, where as few as 3,000 fish returned annually.
Alaska’s glaciers respond to climate change by melting for three additional weeks with every 1 degree Celsius increase in the average summer temperature, data from satellite-mounted radars show.
This winter was one of the warmest on record across the West; as a result, many snowy, alpine areas have seen bouts of winter rainfall where there would ordinarily only be snow. These unusual weather patterns have contributed to an abysmal ski season, but they can also set the stage for dangerous avalanches.
A new study from the University of British Columbia has found that artificial turf fields across Metro Vancouver leach 6PPD-quinone, a chemical known to kill coho salmon, into municipal stormwater systems—and the contamination persists long after the fields are installed.
NOAA Fisheries scientists have found telltale changes in cool, highly productive water upwelling along the West Coast — changes that can provide “an early warning system” signaling greater risk of humpback whales getting entangled in fishing gear.
Anglers on north Idaho’s Lake Pend Oreille continue to play an important role in helping Idaho Fish and Game monitor the lake’s trophy rainbow trout fishery. Through the Lake Pend Oreille Angler Science Program, anglers voluntarily record details about their fishing trips and the trout they catch.
A massive marine heatwave warmed the eastern Pacific Ocean through much of 2025, but the wind-driven upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water that drives the rich marine productivity of the West Coast kept the ecosystem healthy.
Mainstem Columbia River basin water supply forecasts remained mostly steady or rose just slightly over the last month, with the March forecast at The Dalles Dam at 95 percent of the 30-year average, up 2 percentage points from February.
Researchers spent five years developing an AI-based model to protect freshwater fish worldwide from extinction, with a particular focus on identifying threats to fish before they become endangered.
A $1 million federal investment will jump-start critical engineering and design work on fish passage and alternative solutions at Oregon’s McKay Creek Reservoir Dam, laying the technical groundwork to eventually reconnect more than 100 miles of historic salmon and steelhead habitat.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
