Extreme drought returns to parts of Utah as dry conditions intensify statewide
Extreme drought has returned to Utah for the first time in nearly two years, but a weekend storm could help parts of the state that have so far missed out on winter storms.
Moderate drought conditions or worse now blanket about two-thirds of the state, which is up from about 40% last week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor's weekly update on Thursday. It adds that about 8% of the state is in severe drought, while a little over 4% — covering large chunks of Washington and Iron counties — are in extreme drought.
It's the first time that the Drought Monitor has listed any part of Utah in extreme drought since March 2023. Another 33% is listed as "abnormally dry," leaving just 1.3% of the state not listed in any drought category.
Utah's new extreme drought is part of a larger drought growing across parts of Arizona, California and Nevada. Exceptional drought — the agency's worst drought category — returned this week to an area near Lake Mead.
"Conditions are alarmingly dry, with dry soil and high fire danger," Lindsay Johnson, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center, wrote in an adjoining report.
The update comes a day after the Washington County Water Conservancy District reported that St. George remains on pace for its driest winter since city records were first recorded in 1895, while the county is on pace for its lowest water year on record.
Southwestern Utah's snowpack basin has only collected 1.4 inches of snow water equivalent since the water year began on Oct. 1, 19% of the median average for this point in the season, according to Natural Resources Conservation Service data.
Washington County commissioners called on residents to reduce water consumption and pray for rain last month as the dry conditions continued into the new year. The basin's last significant boost came during Thanksgiving weekend.
Candice Hasenyager, director of the Utah Division of Water Resources, told KSL.com that the state is closely monitoring conditions, especially in central and southern Utah. Other snowpack basins within those regions ranged from 35%-79% of their respective median averages on Thursday.
Snowpack basins along the Wasatch and northern Utah regions remain above 80%, thanks to storms that have passed through those regions more frequently this season. It's kept the statewide average at 78% of the first week of February normal.
The number is also expected to increase a bit as an incoming storm is forecast to provide a mix of rain and snow across the state between Friday and Saturday. KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson said it's projected to deliver 2-6 inches of snow in the southern mountains.
"It's not going to be a ton, but it is something," he said.
What helps is that Utah's reservoirs remain 78% full statewide, well above the February median average. However, many reservoirs in central and southern Utah could struggle to refill if dry conditions linger.
Hasenyager said the state will continue to push conservation messages as the drought intensifies.
'That's always part of our efforts — to make sure we're managing our water supplies as wisely as possible,' she said. 'We need to do that whether we're in drought or not, but it definitely becomes more important when we're in low water supply conditions.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Oklahoma is drought free after nearly 6 years, but will it last? Weather experts weigh in
For the first time in nearly six years, the state of Oklahoma is drought-free. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported zero areas of drought across the state for the first time since July 2019. Over the past seven months, widespread and heavy rains have replenished soil moisture and restored water levels in local lakes, state climatologist Gary McManus said on the June 5 Oklahoma Mesonet ticker. First, November 2024 was the wettest November on state record. Then, in April 2025, Oklahoma experienced a statewide average rainfall of 8.74 inches, surpassing the previous April record of 8.32 inches set in 1942. Phil Ware, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman, said rainfall was above normal in May, as well, and so far in June. "We just had kind of repeated rounds of showers and storms over the Southern Plains," Ware said. "So that basically meant that we had several low pressure systems that moved across the plains, and we had a lot of moisture that was brought up from the Gulf of Mexico. And that provided the fuel for, in general, a lot of rain in April ... So the three consecutive months of above normal rainfalls is what put a big dent in the drought." via Imgflip The most recent drought episode really began in August of 2021, McManus said. During the two years before that, there were small areas of drought throughout the state. It was a year later, August 2022, when the city of Oklahoma City drew water from Canton Lake to replenish its drinking water source at Lake Hefner — the first time since 2013, which devastated the lake and the surrounding community, which relied on the tourism income the lake brought. Not only did Oklahoma communities struggle with drinking water, but the agricultural industry was impacted heavily, McManus said. Crops were lost or not able to thrive to begin with, bringing down financial losses on Oklahoma farmers. "When you look back at the impacts, it was really probably a multi-billion-dollar disaster for the state of Oklahoma," McManus said. "When you're looking at agriculture alone, you're well over a billion dollars through (the second half of 2021 through 2024)." There are other impacts, too, McManus said. Tourism took a hit, as well as homeowners who dealt with damage to foundations from contracting soils. And, he added, Oklahomans "can't forget the fire seasons that we had during that time frame, too." Conditions are favorable to hold the drought at bay, at least for the next few weeks, McManus said. But especially in an Oklahoma summer, what's called a "flash drought" can happen very quickly. McManus added that during the summer, while we may tire of the heat, too much rainfall can be a bad thing. "If we continue to get too much rainfall, you're putting Oklahoma's winter wheat crop in jeopardy," McManus said. "This time of year, you really want to rainfall to start slacking off and the heat to come back and cure that wheat crop." Summer outlooks suggest potential challenges ahead. The Climate Prediction Center predicts that Oklahoma may experience above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation throughout June, July and August. But that's not "set in stone," Ware clarified. "These seasonal outlooks, they're kind of an educated guess," Ware said. "It's based on the data that we have, but there's definitely all these examples of times where it kind of goes the opposite direction of what you'd expect." This Oklahoma Mesonet map displays drought severity levels across Oklahoma, and here's where Oklahoma stands for each level: D0 (Abnormally Dry): 9.83% D1 (Moderate Drought): Zero D2 (Severe Drought): Zero D3 (Extreme Drought): Zero D4 (Exceptional Drought): Zero These classifications are based on various data, including precipitation, soil moisture, streamflow, and vegetation health. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma is finally drought free after almost 6 years: Will it last?
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
What defunding public media would mean for the West
Sage Smiley, KYUK's news director, and Morris Alexie visit the proposed site for the climate-driven relocation of Nunapitchuk, a village of about 600 on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska. Alexie is the community's relocation manager. (Photo by Katie Baldwin Basile) Late last fall, members of Bethel, Alaska's search and rescue team met at the local public radio station, KYUK, for a program called River Watch. Over an hour and a half, they took calls from listeners around the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, comparing notes on the safety of the ice at different points along the Kuskokwim River. 'Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there,' said a caller from the village of Kalskag, his voice muffled over the phone. He said he'd recently flown over the river to the east and observed lots of holes in the ice. He wanted to warn listeners in other towns: 'There is no trail right now. None of the open water is marked. So it's advised not to be traveling back and forth from Aniak.' KYUK is the only daily news source for this region, which is roughly the size of Oregon, and River Watch is a staple of its programming. In dozens of Southwest Alaska villages — including many Yup'ik, Athabaskan and Cup'ik communities — residents who live far from the U.S. highway system rely on boats and snow machines to get around. 'The Kuskokwim River in this region is like our highway,' said KYUK news director Sage Smiley. During freeze-up and breakup each year, knowing the condition of the ice can be a matter of life and death. And in the Y-K Delta, where Internet access is often limited, public radio plays a crucial role. But if the Trump administration gets its way, programs like River Watch could soon disappear. Last month, the president signed an executive order aimed at preventing congressionally approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from going to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). CPB, NPR, PBS and a host of local stations have all filed lawsuits in response. Meanwhile, in its proposed budget, the administration outlined a plan to eliminate funding for CPB entirely — and this week, Trump asked Congress to take back more than a billion dollars that had already been set aside for public broadcasters. Lawmakers have 45 days to make a decision on the request, with a House vote expected as early as next week. Defunding public media would hurt stations across the U.S., but for ones like KYUK, which relies on CPB for nearly 70% of its revenue, it would be 'catastrophic,' Smiley said. The data show that stations serving rural and Indigenous audiences in the West would be the hardest hit. Here's why, by the numbers. CPB is an independent nonprofit created by Congress nearly 60 years ago to distribute federal funds to noncommercial TV and radio stations across the U.S. Today, it funds more than 1,500 stations, many of which buy NPR and PBS content to distribute locally alongside local news, music shows and other programming. Collectively, the stations in the public media network give 99% of the U.S. population access to public broadcasting. Nearly half of CPB grantees are rural, and together they employ close to 6,000 people. As nonprofits, local public media stations rely on a variety of funding sources, including federal funding, state funding, listener donations, grants, and underwriting from local businesses. On average, federal funding accounts for 16% of a local public media station's revenue. But for many stations, that percentage is much higher. Three factors unite the stations most reliant on federal funding: They are located in the West, they are rural, and they are tribal stations. Among stations in the 50 states, those in the Western U.S. are by far the most dependent on federal funding, according to a recent analysis of station financial reports for fiscal year 2023, carried out by former NPR product manager Alex Curley. (Limited data is available for American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but according to Curley, the few stations there rely even more heavily on federal funding.) On average, Curley found, Western stations depend on federal money for just over 20% of their revenue — compared with just under 15% for the next highest region, the Midwest. The states with the highest average dependency, in order, are West Virginia, Alaska, New Mexico and Montana. In Alaska, the most dependent Western state, public media stations rely on federal funding for an average of 36% of their revenue. If all the stations with a dependence of at least 20% were forced to close, Alaska would lose 15 stations — half of its total, Curley said. More than 50 stations around the country belong to the Native Public Media network, and they are also particularly vulnerable to funding cuts. All but one of the Native Public Media stations with available data relied on federal funding for at least 20% of their revenue, and the average reliance was more than 50%. Source: CPB defines rural stations as those whose coverage areas have a population density of 40 or fewer residents per square kilometer. The stations defined as rural on this map come from CPB's FY 2024 list of rural station grantees. The funding percentages come from a list of the most vulnerable public radio stations compiled using CPB data from FY 2023, the most recent available. Tribal stations are defined as stations that are 'tribally owned, managed or staffed by tribal members,' according to this map and station websites. (Map design by Luna Anna Archey/High Country News) According to CPB data shared with , 79 radio stations in the U.S. relied on CPB for 30% or more of their funding in FY 2023. More than half of those stations (42) are located in the West. Of the vulnerable Western stations, all but two are rural — and 20 are also tribal stations. Not only would these stations be drastically impacted by losing federal funding, they would also find that money especially hard to replace. Urban stations have large audiences to turn to for help, but rural stations by definition serve sparsely populated areas and often lower-income communities. According to CPB, 40% of the average non-rural station's revenue comes from listener donations, compared with just 28% of the average rural stations. Meanwhile, the average rural station relies on CPB funding nearly twice as much as a non-rural station does. This past fiscal year, KYUK raised just under $20,000 from a total of 413 members, comprising 2% of the radio station's revenue. 'We live in a subsistence region,' Smiley said. 'The way people survive and thrive here does not necessarily follow the traditional Western economic model.' To her, this is part of the beauty of public media: Stations like KYUK allow people to get thoughtful, nuanced coverage of the place they live, whether or not they can afford to pay for it. In Bethel, that includes public safety alerts and emergency coverage on shows like River Watch — but also, local news accessible to everyone in the region. The oldest Indigenous-owned and operated bilingual radio station in the U.S., KYUK broadcasts local news in both English and Yugtun, the Yup'ik language, three times a day. The station also airs several other Yup'ik public affairs and culture shows throughout the week, sharing traditional knowledge and conversations between elders. Villages in the Y-K Delta — like many rural and Indigenous communities — tend to receive a flattened portrayal in the national media, when they're covered at all. Outside reporters often miss the good news: The Bethel student robotics team bringing Yup'ik dance to an international stage, say, or a Cup'ik artist using traditional carving techniques to tell the evolving story of hunting and fishing in his community. Celebrations of berry picking and high school graduation — the everyday activities and special events that make headlines at a local publication run by the same people who coach youth sports and act in community plays. These are stories at stake in the fight over federal funding, Smiley said: 'This idea that a region that has been historically underserved by the state and by the country could lose a public media organization that is focused on providing what people here need, which is public safety information and a reflection of a life that is multifaceted and beautiful — that really, really tears my heart out.' This article first appeared on High Country News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Newsweek
2 days ago
- Newsweek
One State Emerges From Drought for First Time in Six Years
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Record rainfall earlier this spring has lifted Oklahoma fully out of drought conditions for the first time in nearly six years. With showers and thunderstorms expected over the next week for much of the state, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Jennifer Thompson told Newsweek it will likely remain wetter than normal across the state for the foreseeable future. Why It Matters The abnormally wet spring saw climate sites across the state document record-breaking rainfall, with Oklahoma City experiencing its highest April rain total ever recorded. The wet pattern is continuing on Friday, with heavy rainfall posing myriad dangers to people across the state. As of Friday afternoon, multiple flood watches have been issued. Although more rain might further benefit Oklahoma's emergence from drought, NWS meteorologists warned that severe storms were possible Friday night. A stock photo of rainfall. A stock photo of rainfall. xphotoz/Getty What To Know On Thursday, the U.S. Drought Monitor Map released its weekly update, which included figures showing Oklahoma breaking its drought streak that began in July 2019. Although Oklahoma by far isn't the state hardest hit by drought, it has struggled with persistent moderate drought since summer 2019. Three months ago, more than a quarter of the state was classified as battling moderate drought. In that condition, Oklahoma noted difficulties such as hindered lake recreation; poor deer reproduction; falling water levels in seasonal creek and rain-fed ponds; reduced yield for summer crops; and an increased risk of wildfires. There is no drought reported across Oklahoma at the moment, although nearly 10 percent of the state is considered abnormally dry. Many of the challenges accompanying moderate drought conditions are lifted with abnormally dry conditions, although some crops might still be stressed and pond levels could be low. Although the Sooner State is now recovered from its years of drought, other U.S. states are still facing challenges. Exceptional drought, the most severe classification from the U.S. Drought Monitor, is in place for parts of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, with even more widespread documentation of severe and extreme drought. What People Are Saying A flood watch issued by the Norman, Oklahoma, NWS office: "Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations. Creeks and streams may rise out of their banks." Drought Monitor Map said in a summary: "Additional rainfall this past week ended drought across Oklahoma and the Sooner State became drought-free for the first time since July 2019. The Lower Mississippi Valley and Tennessee Valley are also drought-free with 30 to 90-day precipitation averaging above normal." What Happens Next Most flood watches expire by Saturday afternoon. Oklahoma is anticipating slightly above normal precipitation in the immediate future, according to a six- to 10-day precipitation outlook published by the NWS Climate Prediction Center.
