Ninth year of drought
by Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale Online!
November 3, 2007
The National Weather Service issued a short summary of current conditions in Wyoming.
According to NWS:
• Wyoming has entered the ninth consecutive water year in which at least moderate to severe hydrologic conditions have affected at least half of the state. Wyoming entered water year 2008 with the western half of the state remaining in severe hydrologic drought; and the majority of eastern Wyoming continues to experience moderate hydrologic drought conditions. Northeast Wyoming continues to be relatively drought-free. The good news is that Wyoming, for the most part, is entering water year 2008 without extreme drought conditions to contend with—only a very small area of the upper Snake Watershed remains in extreme hydrologic drought.
• Current calendar year rainfall totals across Wyoming vary from 124 percent of average at Casper to only 71 percent of normal at Lander.
• The end of the irrigation season left reservoir storages well below average for Wyoming’s major reservoirs. Boysen Reservoir was only 53 percent of capacity by the end of September; and Pathfinder Reservoir was only 17 percent full by late September. In fact, September reservoir storages for Pathfinder and Seminoe Reservoirs continue to be the lowest in 30 years.
• The latest drought outlook through January 2008 indicates that most of central and western Wyoming will see some improvement in current drought conditions.
Click on the links below for more drought information for Wyoming.
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