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A regional collaboration of public media stations that serve the Rocky Mountain States of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Utah And Colorado Are Parched As Spring Begins

Drought has basically divided the Mountain West into two separate regions this year.

Storms kept Idaho, Montana and Wyoming wet over the winter, and the national Drought Monitor shows no drought in those states.

But high pressure dogged Utah and most of Colorado this winter. Now the ground is dry and the snowpack is lean, even though March was stormy.

“The long term is what concerns us,” said Craig Laub, who raises hay and grain in southern Utah.

He said the short term doesn’t worry local farmers. They can irrigate their crops like he does with water from aquifers.

“We just haven’t had any recharge, so we’re having to lower our pumps every year to go deeper for the water,” Laub said.

Utah and Colorado have endured about a year of unusually dry weather, thanks to high-pressure systems that acted like storm barriers.

Brian McInerney, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, said a wet winter last year helped top off the reservoirs that store water for drinking and irrigation.

“I think we’re okay this year,” he said. “I think if we look at the 2018 water year, what we’ll find is low snowpack but adequate reservoir storage.”

The National Climate Prediction Center is forecasting that the drought will persist this spring in both Utah and Colorado.

This map shows what forecasters at the National Climate Prediction Center are anticipating for about three months.
Credit National Climate Prediction Center
This map shows what forecasters at the National Climate Prediction Center are anticipating for about three months.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.  

Copyright 2021 KUER 90.1. To see more, visit KUER 90.1.

This is the map from a year ago. Notice that most of Utah and Idaho had normal moisture levels with a few dry patches.
U.S. Drought Monitor Archives /
This is the map from a year ago. Notice that most of Utah and Idaho had normal moisture levels with a few dry patches.

Judy Fahys is KUER's reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, a journalism collaborative that unites six stations across the Mountain West, including stations in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana to better serve the people of the region. The project focuses its reporting on topic areas including issues of land and water, growth, politics, and Western culture and heritage.