(upbeat music) - I'm Starla Sampaco in the Crosscut KCTS 9 newsroom.

Water, heat, and smoke are changing how Washington wine grape growers do their work.

Dick Boushey has been growing wine grapes in Yakima and Benton counties for more than 40 years, because vineyards require precise management.

Different varieties of grapes have to be matched against the right temperatures, soils, and moistures, but the climate is changing.

That worries growers like Boushey and greatly complicates their work.

Many of Washington's vineyards are irrigated with water flowing from the Cascade mountains, where higher temperatures are causing snowpack to melt earlier in the year.

That throws vineyards out of whack.

climate change will also enable diseases and pests common to warmer climates to move into Washington vineyards.

But another climate migration is also taking place.

Grape varieties moving north and possibly to higher elevations.

I'm Starla Sampaco, find nonprofit Northwest news every day on crosscut.com.

(upbeat music)