Much of the Intermountain West region is in drought accounting for 73% of the area, and the widespread drought is expected to worsen west of the Continental Divide, climatologists reported during the Intermountain West Drought Update and Climate Webinar on Tuesday, Aug 5.
“Since the start of the water year, conditions have worsened nearly everywhere. Southern Arizona has had record dry conditions for the first 10 months of the water year. The drought is causing impacts to agriculture and water supplies, and is enabling the growth of large wildfires in the region,” said Russ Schumacher, Ph.D., professor and Colorado state climatologist and director of the Colorado Climate Center.
The water year is known as the time period of measuring precipitation from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, which impacts the flow of waterways the following spring.
Northwest Colorado’s White River near Meeker has a record low streamflow, and is close to the all-time record low flow, he said.
Meanwhile, in contrast, conditions have improved in the eastern part of the Intermountain West with near-average to above-average precipitation across eastern Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.
An update on Lake Powell and Lake Mead showed storage in those two major lakes is again extremely low. Both lakes saw little-to-no increase from snowmelt, this year.
Unfortunately, wildfires have been an issue, with the Dragon Bravo fire near the Grand Canyon impacting 126,000 acres and is the seventh largest in Arizona history. Large fires have also been burning in western Colorado and Utah.
Schumacher expects temperatures to remain hot and dry the second week of August, with the month overall expected to be hotter and drier than average.
WET AUGUST
August, however, is also the wettest month of the year.
“We expect to get much of the rain from the monsoon (seasonal reversal of winds from Mexico northward into the southwest) with typically 1 inch of rain per week, but it’s not what we’re seeing now,” said Schumacher. Hopefully monsoon rains will return the second week of August, he said.
There’s also the potential for La Nina to return by winter, but conditions may ultimately stay neutral (meaning neither La Nina nor El Nino).
“ENSO-neutral is most likely through the late Northern Hemisphere summer 2025 (56% chance from August-October.) After that, chances for La Nina conditions increase into fall and winter 2025-2026 but remain comparable to neutral,” Schumacher said.
Screen Shot 2025-08-09 at 8.51.56 AM
More Like This, Tap A Topic news
