Prior to Wednesday, people were reporting that a small pocket was about 20 minutes away from where I was. Great! I get there, and sometime that morning, Niantic drastically reduced where they spawn. The only place in my state was now a small town two hours away.
Washingtonians, Leavenworth is the only place they spawn now. Prior to Wednesday, they spawned in Cle Elum, Yakima, Wenatchee, Moses Lake. You know, towns that are actually in the desert of our state.
Edit: So I'm a little wrong about spawns in Washington. TSR has this: https://boku.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=07c6ea2a89284fdebddff0ef74452a3b¢er=19.623985%2C15.857104&scale=147914381.897889
But as you can see, the central and southeast part of the state is a big, flat basin, and many parts are deserts. Included in this area are all the cities I named – Wenatchee, Yakima, etc. Now, post update, they don't spawn in the desert basin at all, but all around the basin. That area is all forests and at worst, rich grasslands.
Edit 2: As noted by u/nokel, looks like they improved it! It's not as much as earlier this week, but it looks like the proper desert cities like Yakima, Wenatchee, and Spokane got them back. West of the Cascades is still SOL.
by snapetom