Relatively dry weather in Central Oregon since the start of 2013 could leave reservoirs low come fall, says the state official tasked with managing water supplies here.

“We are very, very dry in parts of the basin,” said Jeremy Giffin, Deschutes Basin watermaster for the Oregon Water Resources Department in Bend.

The result is higher demand from water users and less water being stored in reservoirs, such as Wickiup southwest of town. Unless a change in the weather occurs, the reservoirs could shrink to 15-20 percent of capacity at the end of summer.

The current warm, sunny days in Central Oregon are speeding up the mountain snow melt, said Julie Koeberle, hydrologist with the Oregon Snow Survey for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland.

“It is melting fast, basically,” she said.

Snowpack in the Deschutes/Crooked Rivers Basin is at 62 percent of average for this time of year, based on data from automated sites around the Cascade and Ochoco mountains. At the end of March, the last time the NRCS manually checked the Central Oregon snowpack, it was at 89 percent of average for that time of year. Data from just the automated sites had the basin snowpack at 78 percent of average at the start of April.

Depending on their location, some Central Oregon streams have seen a boost from snowpack, she said. There are also many streams that rely on springs, so higher flows could be yet to come.

So far streamflow has been looking good in Central Oregon, said Steve Johnson, manager for the Central Oregon Irrigation District. The same warm weather melting the snowpack in the high country has increased demand for water in the fields, though.

“Folks want to irrigate more this year sooner than the last couple of years,” Johnson said. “The last two springs it has been cool and rainy.”

There is plenty of water in Central Oregon reservoirs to meet the increased early demand, he said.

Wickiup Reservoir, which holds as much as 200,000 acre-feet of water, was 90 percent full as of Friday, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. An acre-foot is enough water to submerge an acre of land under a foot of water.

If there is a hot, dry summer, Johnson said the impacts on water supply won’t be felt until next year, provided a dry fall and winter follow up the dry summer.

“If you run below average a couple of years in a row that is eventually going to catch up to you,” he said. “And then you get into a situation where there is not enough water to go around.”

For now, the weather in Central Oregon will likely stay warm. The National Weather Service is forecasting highs above 70 degrees through next week, said Rob Brooks, forecaster with the National Weather Service in Pendleton.

“Anytime you get warmer temperatures you are going to get snowpack melt,” he said.