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SEATTLE (Reuters) - With snowpacks at a quarter of normal levels and sunny, warm days well ahead of the summer months, the home state of the "rainy city" of Seattle declared a drought emergency on Thursday.

Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire authorized the statewide drought emergency, the first since 2001, after unusually low winter snowfalls in the Cascades left rivers on both sides of the mountain range flowing at record-low levels.

Gregoire said in a statement it was "very likely that all areas of our state will experience at least some level of drought this year."

She also told the state's National Guard to get ready to fight wildfires, and will ask the legislature to approve an additional $8.2 million to deal with the drought.

Officials from the state's Department of Ecology said this year's drought could be worst since 1977, the driest year on record.

Similar conditions were affecting other northwestern states, including Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

Although Seattle is known as the "rainy city" with its image of gray skies and Gore-tex wearers, official records put the city's annual average rainfall at 37 inches, below New York City's 47 inches (1,200 mm), according to official records