What Utah’s water situation looks like as drought spreads to start summer

SALT LAKE CITY — Early monsoonal moisture has helped ease the severity of drought conditions across southern Utah, but a shift in moisture patterns has also left all parts of the state “abnormally dry” for the start of summer.

About 85% of the state is now listed as either in moderate or severe drought, while the rest is “abnormally dry,” the U.S. Drought Monitor reported on Thursday.

The last remaining extreme drought in southwest Utah dropped back to severe drought in the report for the first time in months, while Thursday’s report was also the first time since February that no parts of the state had avoided any type of monitor status. Before that, it had last happened in December 2022, before a record snowpack lifted the state out of a drought that had gripped it for years.

The slightly better conditions in southern Utah and worsening conditions in northern Utah are the result of a shift in precipitation patterns, Candice Hasenyager, director of the Utah Division of Water Resources, explained to state lawmakers this week.

Precipitation collection is ranging between 70% to 95% of normal across the state since the water year began on Oct. 1, which she said “doesn’t look terrible” on the surface in an update to members of the Utah Legislative Water Development Commission on Tuesday.

But it only looks closer to normal because every region has experienced runs of moisture and runs of dryness.

This winter’s snowpack was fairly normal for northern Utah. However, Salt Lake City last received measurable rainfall on May 18, which has been the case for most of the state’s northern half. Southern Utah has benefited from early monsoonal moisture after having a rough snowpack season.

Put it all together, and Utah’s statewide soil moisture average has slipped well below normal, and below-normal stream flows have emerged at the start of summer, Hasenyager said.

Utah’s reservoirs have already peaked for the year, topping out below last year’s peak. The statewide system reached as high as 87%, three percentage points below the state’s average at the end of June 2024. It has since fallen to 84%, which is still 12 percentage points above the state’s median average for June.

“There is an increased demand that’s occurring right now with the warm temperatures, so that is a concern,” Hasenyager said.

The statewide data doesn’t include Lake Powell, which also had a rough snowpack season.

Federal officials projected in April that the nation’s second-largest reservoir — and a popular Utah recreation spot — may only gain 12 feet in water level at best. Levels are on their way back up, but it has only gained about 4 feet since then, returning to almost 3,562 feet elevation. It’s listed at 34% capacity, not much higher than its wintertime low.

“It will not come up much at all this year,” said Gene Shawcroft, Utah’s Colorado River commissioner.

All of these show how Utah has “some positives and some challenges” at the moment, said Sen. Keven Stratton, R-Orem, the commission’s co-chair. Gov. Spencer Cox previously issued an emergency declaration tied to drought earlier this year, but that has since expired.

Utah water managers are urging residents to reduce water consumption as much as possible this summer. Tips on how to save water can be found on a website that the state set up.