To truly grasp the absurdity of this year's weird winter weather, consider the fate of Olympic National Park's marmots.

The furry, waddling, bushy-tailed rodents are trapped in a warped ecological quandary: The region has been so crisp, snow-free and sunny that the hibernating creatures might actually be in danger of freezing.

"It's still very cold at night, and snow insulates their burrows," said park spokeswoman Barb Maynes. "A winter like this, with no insulating layer of snow, would be like us sleeping in a light sleeping bag on top of Mount Everest."

With less than one-fifth the normal rainfall, temperatures topping 60 degrees and moisture-cradling mountain snows hovering at 20 percent of normal, the impact of the region's weather is showing up in ways big and small.

And the sentiments of those who manage Washington's natural resources can be reduced to a bumper-sticker slogan: Enjoy it while it lasts — but hope that it doesn't.

Already, snow has been so spotty on the tiny ski area near Hurricane Ridge in the national park, that one of spring's earliest alpine wildflowers, the purple-petaled douglasia, popped up four weeks ahead of schedule, and the Ridge is seeing as many hikers as it does on sunny fall weekends.

In fact, all across the region there are cherries almost in full bloom, with forsythia and flowering dogwood ready to follow.

"On these bright days, the bees and insects just come alive, and become more active," said John Wott, a University of Washington professor of urban horticulture.

In Seattle, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started refilling Lake Washington with fresh water in mid-February, as always. But it is doing so at a much faster pace than normal: "We thought, 'Let's capture all the snow runoff that's coming off now, while we can,' " said Corps spokeswoman Patricia Graesser.

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES The ferry Wenatchee heads for Seattle from Bainbridge Island with a backdrop of sparse snow in the Olympic Mountains.

At Seattle Public Utilities, which oversees the region's drinking water, officials are overfilling the reservoirs, and crunching numbers to gauge how best to manage the supply through the spring.

It's far too early to gauge whether the region will face a summer drought, but "nobody can look outside day-after-day-after-day of sun and not think about it," said Guillemette Regan, a strategic planner for the utility. "We're all being cautious."

With the typically damp months of March and April still to come, hopeful farmers and those who spend the summer fighting wildfires still have their eyes cast toward the heavens. Even in 1977, the driest winter in modern state history, late spring rains helped moderate a summer drought that most had expected would be even worse.

"You don't want to hit the panic button too soon when there are still several months that could help you out," said Chris Lynch, a hydraulic engineer with the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates storage reservoirs that provide some Eastern Washington irrigators with water.

But the impact of continued dryness could surface in ways obvious and not.

Less water in rivers also means that water would be warmer, which makes it harder for salmon and trout to survive. And since fish seeking cold water in low-flow years tend to pile up in big pools, that in turn makes it easier for anglers to accidentally hook more of the threatened wild fish.

"We may have to close some popular holding pools," said Lew Atkins, assistant director of fish programs for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, who said his division is already coordinating with federal fish managers on how best to respond to the weather.

In one record-breaking snow year at Mount Rainier National Park, the Paradise parking lot collected 1,100 inches of snow. So far this year, Paradise has scored a measly 240 inches. Unless the park gets significantly more precipitation, the National Park Service expects crevasses on the volcano's glaciated flanks to crack wider and longer, making passage more treacherous much earlier in the mountain-climbing season.

Waterfowl, too, need wetlands and breeding ponds to keep bird populations up, said Dave Ware, game-division manager for the fish and wildlife department. "There may have to be adjustments to future hunting seasons, but it's still too early for us to say," Ware said. "Let's just hope March and April are wet."

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com