Rain is reportedly on Utah’s horizon, and just in time
Aug 20, 2025, 7:00 AM | Updated: 7:20 am
Conan Williams, 3, of Salt Lake City, plays on the splash pad at Millcreek Common as temperatures rose to the low 90s in Salt Lake County on Sunday, June 1, 2025. By Tues., Aug. 19, the state hadn't seen measurable precipitation for 46 days. (Tess Crowley/Deseret News)
(Tess Crowley/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — It’s not your imagination, Utah is experiencing a long dry spell. Specifically it’s 46 days and counting since the state has seen any measurable rain.
“To put that into perspective,” said Hayden Mahan, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, “that’s getting in close to the top 25 of all time driest streaks on record for the Salt Lake office.”
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Mahan said that one reason for Utah’s extra dry conditions this year is the lack of monsoonal rain. According to the U.S. government’s drought monitoring webpage, seasonal monsoonal moisture is “the circulation of subtropical moisture that develops over northern Mexico and extends into the Southwest U.S. from June 15–September 30.
But this year it’s late to arrive, Mahan said.
In addition to being bone dry, it’s been hot. And those hot summer days dry out the soil quickly. Mahan said that all equates to a “negative feedback loop, where you’re getting drier, you’re getting hotter. And when you’re getting hotter, you’re getting drier.”
The good news? Mahan said rain is possible by the weekend.
