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December 15, 2022

Cold, Wet Start to Western Snow Season Except in Parts of the Southwest

November 4, 2022

October was cool and wet for the Intermountain West. Wyoming and Colorado’s eastern plains missed out on most of that rain.

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October 4, 2022
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The 2022–2026 National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Strategic Plan outlines and advances NIDIS’s approach to building a national drought early warning system (DEWS). 

September 30, 2022

Despite a Wet Summer, Pockets of Extreme (D3) to Exceptional (D4) Drought Continue

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September 22, 2022
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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.

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March 26, 2022
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This study, published in WIREs Water, volume 9, issue 3, was funded by NIDIS through the FY 2022 Coping with Drought research competition. 

Learn more about this research: Developing Drought Impact Models for the Intermountain West Drought Early Warning System.

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Document Date
December 29, 2021
Document Description

This study, published in WIREs Water, was funded by NIDIS through the FY 2022 Coping with Drought research competition. 

Learn more about this research: Developing Drought Impact Models for the Intermountain West Drought Early Warning System.

August 29, 2022

Summer monsoon improves but does not eliminate drought in the Southwest.

 

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Document Date
July 19, 2022
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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.

June 30, 2022

The Southwest Monsoon has started off strong, and forecasters are predicting the potential for a wet monsoon season this summer. Specifically, the latest 3-month outlook shows an increased chance of July–September precipitation being above normal for parts of the Southwest, with the highest odds over southern Arizona.

What does this mean for short-term and long-term conditions in the region?

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