Most Of Utah In Level 3 Drought; Colorado Basin Forecasts Deteriorating Rapidly For 2021 And Later

[hatrack]

Red isn’t a good sign when you’re looking at a drought map, and most of Utah is now in the red. More than four-fifths of Utah is experiencing an extreme drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported Thursday. It’s the second week they’ve reported that 83% of the state — essentially the entire state south of the Great Salt Lake — falls within that category at the very least.

It’s worse in some parts of central Utah and an area in southwest Utah along the Utah-Nevada border, which are now listed as being in exceptional droughts. It’s the driest of dry listings by the U.S. Drought Monitor, which listed 3% of the state in that class for the first time last week; it grew to 5.8% with Thursday’s update.

"The dry, summer months and the really hot weather and low humidity has caused our drought conditions to become more and more severe as the summer has progressed," said Rachel Shilton, river basin planning manager for the Utah Division of Water Resources.

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Ed. - This image is from the 9/15 Drought Monitor. The most recent shows continued deterioration:



https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

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Meanwhile, Utah is far from alone in dealing with extreme drought conditions, especially in the western United States. Extreme drought conditions blanket the intermountain area, including the western half of Colorado and large portions of Wyoming. Similar conditions are reported across eastern Nevada, the Four Corners and a large swath of Arizona. There are also extreme droughts reports in northern California and western portions of Oregon along the Pacific Coast, also as some parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas in the American Southwest. Some exceptional drought spots were also reported in Colorado, Nevada and Texas — with the largest spot along the Utah-Nevada border. It’s no surprise that areas experiencing droughts are also dealing with massive wildfires.

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https://www.ksl.com/article/50018933/most-of-utah-is-now-in-an-extreme-drought

Risk of severe water shortages in the seven-state Colorado River Basin have risen dramatically since April with new forecasts indicating that lakes Powell and Mead could hit crisis levels much sooner than previously expected. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman said the change in the forecast is noteworthy. "We’re dealing with more uncertainty than we thought,” she said during a virtual press conference Tuesday.

The Bureau of Reclamation is responsible for managing the two storage vessels and monitoring the mountain snowpack and runoff that feeds them every year. As recently as April, when the last forecast came out, inflows to Lake Powell were projected to be roughly 75% of average this year. The latest report, however, indicates inflows will be just 55% of average. In just five months, the risk that reservoir levels could fall low enough by 2025 to threaten power generation and the ability to release water to downstream users has risen 12%, according to Reclamation.

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Last year, for the first time in history, the seven states agreed to adopt a basin-wide Drought Contingency Plan. The Lower Basin component of that plan is now complete and requires cutbacks in water use as levels in the reservoirs fall and reach certain elevations. Arizona has already had to cut back its water use in 2020 as a result of the agreement, and Mead’s levels have risen as a result of these actions and other conservation programs. Now at 44% full, the reservoir is the highest it’s been in six years, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

Ed. - This is incorrect - as of September 26th, Mead is at 39.75% of capacity - http://lakemead.water-data.com/

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Since 2000, lakes Powell and Mead have lost nearly half of their stored water supplies. Back then, the system was nearly full, at 94%, according to Reclamation. This year the two reservoirs are collectively projected to end what’s known as the water year, on Sept. 30, at just 53% of capacity. Climate change and warmer temperatures continue to rob the river of its flows. In fact, water flowing into Lake Powell during that 20-year period was above average just four out of the past 19 years, according to Reclamation.

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https://gazette.com/premium/dire-forecasts-in-colorado-river-basin-as-drought-impact-deepens/article_d9e900aa-f86b-11ea-a31e-879ad945b37a.html

[Calculating]

1. I live in SLC ut

And I've started calling this the year it never rained. I don't think we've had any worthwhile rain since spring, and even that had some of the lowest precipitation on record.