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Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for December 2023–February 2024. Dated March 2024.
Winter temperatures were above normal throughout the West with much of the region in the top 10% warmest winters since 1895. Precipitation anomalies were mixed for the winter season. Much of Oregon, northern Nevada, northern Utah, and eastern Colorado saw much above normal precipitation while northern Wyoming and parts of northern Idaho and Western Montana had much below normal precipitation.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for September–November 2023. Dated December 2023.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for June–August 2023. Dated September 2023.
Temperatures were above normal across the Pacific Northwest and much of the Southwest. New Mexico, Washington, and Oregon had their third, fifth, and seventh warmest summer on record, respectively. Remnants of Hurricane Hilary brought heavy rainfall to southern California and the Great Basin in mid-August and contributed to much-above-normal total summer precipitation across the region.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for March–May 2023. Dated June 2023.
Temperatures were generally cool to cold west-wide, with notable cold anomalies along the California coast and in the interior Intermountain West. With few exceptions, spring was wetter than normal in the western U.S., largely owing to a wet March.
This article in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences was the result of NIDIS-supported research. Learn more about this research.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for December 2022–February 2023. Dated March 2023.
Temperatures were below normal across nearly the entire West with the exception of parts of southeast New Mexico. A series of atmospheric rivers from late December through mid-January brought heavy precipitation to California, the Great Basin, and parts of the northern Rockies where total winter precipitation was record high in some instances.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for September–November 2022. Dated December 2022.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for June–August 2022. Dated September 2022.
Temperatures were above normal across the entire West with many long-term stations in the top five warmest summers on record. Most of the West saw near-normal or above-normal precipitation this summer.
Compared to one year ago, the area in drought in the western U.S. shrank from 89% to 73%, while the area in Exceptional Drought (D4) dropped from 25% to 7%. Spring storms in the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies removed drought in parts of those regions. A robust summer monsoon has improved drought in parts of the Southwest, especially western New Mexico. The Southwest, California, and even parts of the Northwest have been stuck in a 20+ year megadrought, influenced by climate change.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for March–May 2022. Dated June 2022.
Temperatures were below average across the Pacific Northwest, northern California, and the northern Great Basin. Dry conditions persisted across the Southwest with record low spring precipitation in parts of Nevada, California, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.