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Colorado drought conditions improve again slightly

By Evan Wyloge June 3, 2022 | updated 3 years ago

With recent rain and snow across the state, Colorado’s drought conditions continue to improve slightly, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center, though the area remains in a long-term drought.

Two weeks of precipitation have finally pushed a small part of the state, in the northern Rockies, back into “normal” conditions.

“Rain and mountain snow was also widespread in Colorado recently, leading to improving conditions in both the Rocky Mountains and high plains,” the Drought Monitor’s analysts wrote this week. “Despite these improvements, widespread severe, extreme, and some exceptional drought continued across the West.”

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A small patch straddling the Jackson and Larimer counties’ border — about 1% of the state — is now seeing “normal” conditions.

The last time the state had any area with no abnormal dryness or drought was November 2021.

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Forecasts call for a chance of more rain in the eastern half of the state over the coming week, but not in the western half of the state, where drought conditions remain the most severe.

The improvements are certainly welcome, as summer temperatures rise and as data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predict a La Niña weather pattern will remain in effect through the summer and into the fall, which normally comes with drier-than-normal conditions.

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The effects of the long-term drought are evident in the high plains and West.

“Impacts from the widespread drought include reduced grazing for cattle in New Mexico due to wildfire closures in national forests and hydropower production concerns at reservoirs in Nevada and California due to very low water levels,” the Drought Monitor’s weekly report explains.

“Winter wheat harvest potential in Kansas was reduced by over 25%, while conditions are too wet in parts of Montana and the Dakotas for planting spring wheat.”

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Evan Wyloge

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