Latest Drought Statement

Back-to-Back Pacific Storms to Impact the West Coast; Heavy Snow in the Central Appalachians

Back-to-back powerful Pacific storm systems to impact the Pacific Northwest and northern California through the end of this week with heavy rain, flooding, strong winds, and higher elevation mountain snow. A strong, long-duration atmospheric river will accompany the Pacific storms, bringing excessive rainfall and flash flooding to southwest Oregon and northwest California through the week. Read More >

...DROUGHT EXPANDS OVER WESTERN COLORADO... .SYNOPSIS: Drought categories have expanded over western Colorado with extreme drought pushing slightly westward and northward. Fall precipitation and spring snow accumulation were well below normal for portions of southwestern Colorado. The dry conditions have continued for the past few months. Precipitation in the southern valleys and mountains and west central valleys was below normal for April and continued to be below normal for the month of May. June was a mixed bag of some areas above normal and some below. So far the beginning of July has been dry with well below normal precipitation and well above normal temperatures. Areas in D3...Extreme Drought...include Archuleta, San Juan, La Plata, Delta counties with large portions of Hinsdale, Montezuma, Dolores, Montrose, San Miguel counties and a smaller part of eastern Mesa and western Ouray counties. The increase in drought severity is due to low soil moisture, lack of snow pack and early melt, below normal precipitation, lower stream flows, and drying vegetation. .CLIMATE SUMMARY: Last fall precipitation was well below normal leading to low soil moisture content across the southwestern Colorado region going into the winter season. Snow pack was near normal for the majority of the winter season but then started to quickly decrease in the middle of spring. Dry conditions for both the mountains and valleys in southwestern Colorado and the west central valleys became entrenched in April and continued through early July. Early summer rains have been sorely lacking keeping precipitation well below normal over a large portion of western Colorado. .HYDROLOGIC SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK: Average seven day stream flow has ranged from below normal to much below normal with the 28 day average also ranging from below normal to much below normal for southwestern Colorado. Flows continued to quickly decrease to base flow levels early and in many cases are now running below base flow for this time of year. .SUMMARY OF IMPACTS: Impacts include low soil moisture, lower stream flows, and drying vegetation. Wild fire starts are more prevalent and a few fires in western Colorado have had large growth characteristics. .DROUGHT MITIGATION ACTIONS: None reported. .PRECIPITATION/TEMPERATURE OUTLOOK: Into the early summer, there is a better than average chance of above normal temperatures and better chances of below normal precipitation across western Colorado. Current observations show that the ENSO cycle is and will continue in a neutral condition through the summer. Chances increase that La Nina will start in the fall.