SALEM — Recent rains have reduced the chances that Gov. Ted Kulongoski will declare a statewide drought emergency, state climatologist George Taylor said.

"The whole state is really looking better, with April rainfall well above average in many places" Taylor said Tuesday. "Reservoir levels on the west side are up, although Eastern Oregon is still facing water supply shortages."

Torrential thunderstorms Wednesday in Southern Oregon made drought seem like a remote abstraction, but for the winter just ended the mountain snowpack was barely 50 percent of normal across the Rogue and Umpqua basins. Melting snow provides the water to fill streams and irrigation canals during the long dry summer.

Medford’s precipitation for the 12-month period beginning Sept. 1, 2004 stood at 13.94 inches before Wednesday’s storm, about 90 percent of the normal average through April 27.

The shortages east of the Cascades led the Oregon Drought Council on Tuesday to recommend that Kulongoski issue drought emergencies in Wheeler, Deschutes and Lake counties. If the governor follows through, 11 of Oregon’s 36 counties would be considered in a drought.

Earlier this month, Kulongoski declared drought status in six counties: Hood River, Sherman, Gilliam, Morrow, Crook and Umatilla. In March, he had declared emergencies in Baker and Klamath counties.

The designations provide "flexible water management tools to irrigators, municipalities and other water users, not generally available under Oregon law." A statewide drought would allow farmers to tap emergency wells and authorize the state to limit non-essential use of water.

A wet weather system drenched many parts of the state last weekend, Taylor said. After three months of below-average rainfall, Redmond received 1.28 inches of rain Friday through Monday — about a quarter-inch less than fell in all of January, February and March.

Six weeks of above-average rainfall in the Willamette River Basin has brought five reservoirs to normal or above-normal levels, officials said, improving the outlook for fish migration, irrigation, power generation and recreation this spring and summer.

But Andy Bryant, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Portland, said spring rains can’t completely erase the winter snow deficit.

"We continue to emphasize, especially for eastern parts of the state, that water shortages in most Central and Eastern Oregon basins are likely," Bryant said.