Last month the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) released an interim report on the 2015 drought. It cautions that it is not a final estimate of the total economic impact of the drought: "The main conclusion from this interim report is that impacts were widespread and will be ongoing."

In addition to the drought, the report mentions three other external pressures affecting the market value of crops last year: the port slowdown, wildfires, and extreme heat. Because effects from extreme heat would be difficult to separate from those of drought, they are both considered in the report.

While the report notes that "every farmer in the state felt some type of impact in 2015" from the drought, it specifically estimates known loss from drought for a few crops:

• Wheat: $212 million
• Apples: $87 million
• Blueberries: $12 million
• Red raspberries: $14 million
• Hay grown in the Kittitas Reclamation District: $11 million

The Yakima Herald-Republic quotes WSDA spokesman Hector Castro:

“It’s still too soon to say what the total economic damage will be,” Castro said. “But even this brief glimpse shows that the damage to farmers is significant, and they anticipate that the harm is going to carry over into (this) year.”

Meanwhile, the Herald has another story about the hop harvest last year, and how the heat affected it:

Heat-tolerant alpha hop varieties had a banner year. But some of the aroma hops that are favored by craft brewers mature earlier and prefer cooler weather, and suffered significantly in the June heat.

But,

Because the early varieties produce less per acre to begin with, the losses due to heat and water stress had a modest impact on the total harvest. But the smaller crops probably still hurt growers’ bottom lines and the availability of certain varieties for brewers, [Kevin Riel, owner of Double R Hop Ranch] said.

Finally, Pew has an interesting interactive item showing employment patterns of immigrants versus U.S.-born workers. In Washington, immigrants are 5 times as likely as U.S.-born workers to have jobs in the agriculture and extraction sector (compared to 1.5 times as likely for the nation as a whole). Additionally, immigrants in Washington are 1.2 times as likely as U.S.-born workers to have jobs in professional, scientific, technical and management services (compared to 0.9 times as likely for the nation as a whole).