Severe drought conditions have continued in central and eastern portions of Fremont County since our last update on August 2nd. However, abnormally dry conditions have expanded across the northwest areas of the county.
The National Weather Service Riverton has shared the following breakdown of impacts this dry season has on Wyoming:
Fire danger impacts... The lack of precipitation across western and central Wyoming between June and late-August has greatly increased the fire danger across the region. The warmer and drier weather pattern since late April has left drier than normal soil conditions across Wyoming with a very short greenup season. The latest Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) from August 22nd, 2020 indicated persistent drier than normal soil conditions across much of central and southern Wyoming and expanding into the west. Agriculture impacts... Low soil moisture condition reports have increased across Wyoming even with a few late day thunderstorms and showers and the increased use of irrigation water over the past month. The August 23rd, 2020 USDA Wyoming Crop Progress Report indicated that 83 percent of topsoil moisture across the state were reported at short to very short, compared to 55 percent this time last year and 49 percent for the 5 year average. The reports of the lack of subsoil moisture had also increased over the past two weeks to 86 percent at short to very short statewide, compared to 55 percent this time last year and 48 percent for a 5 year average. Livestock pasture and range conditions have also been negatively affected as the drought continues across Wyoming. Reports across the state have shown that the drought was hurting hay production and pasture conditions as some areas have lost irrigation water due to low stream levels and a number of locations have have ceased haying operations for the year. Several reports have been received of livestock being sold off early, as well as being moved from regular summer grazing lands 2 months earlier than normal and moved to emergency Conservation Reserve Program grazing land. Pasture and range conditions have been rated at 72 percent very poor to poor, compared to 11 percent last year and 16 percent for a 5 year average. HYDROLOGICAL IMPACTS: Streamflow across western and central Wyoming have mostly remained near normal with some decrease in levels, while across north central and southern Wyoming stream flow has decreased to below normal as the last high elevation snowpacks have melted. This overall reduction of inflows into area reservoirs with increased demand for downstream irrigation water as generally decreased regional reservoir levels by at least 15 percent since early July. CLIMATE SUMMARY: So far the month of August has been warmer than normal across the entire region, especially across the northern Big Horn Basin as well as southern Fremont and northern Sweetwater Counties which were all 4 to 5 degrees above normal. Overall, August has remained on the dry side, particularly across the far west which has areas reporting totals so far this month more than an inch below normal. July continued with the mostly dry pattern as precipitation totals ranged from 133 percent of normal at Snake River Ranger Station to no rain at all recorded at Shoshoni, Tensleep, Thermopolis, Lovell and Midwest. Some of the wetter sites were 112 percent at Shell, 107 percent at Bitter Creek and 96 percent at Jackson Dam. On the other hand, central and eastern Wyoming continued on the dry side as Casper only received 5 percent of normal rainfall, 7 percent at Jeffrey City, 10 percent at Basin, 15 percent at Worland, 30 percent at Kaycee, 32 percent at Riverton, 35 percent at Rock Springs, 38 percent at Buffalo and 41 percent at Jackson. DROUGHT MITIGATION ACTIONS: All area reservoirs were reporting an increase in demand for downstream releases as irrigation use has climbed during July and August. Reports were also taken of livestock in some of the harder hit areas being sold off early or being moved off poor summer pastures and rangelands early to emergency Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grazing land. On August 10th, the USDA Farm Service Agency announced changes to ease restrictions on the use of CRP grazing lands and updated eligibility for use when the county reaches severe drought (D2) conditions or greater. Reports have also been received of early suspension of haying operations for the year do to the lack of precipitation and irrigation water supplies. LOCAL PRECIPITATION/TEMPERATURE OUTLOOK: The Climate Prediction Center's (CPC) outlook for the next 2 weeks indicated better than average chances of cooler than normal temperatures along with continued below normal precipitation for the period. The CPC outlooks for September through November continues to indicate better than average chances of above normal temperatures along with equal chances of near normal precipitation across Wyoming, especially across the north. The monthly drought outlook for the month of August depicts that drought conditions will persist through the rest of the month, as the seasonal drought outlook through November 30th continues to indicate that drought conditions are expected to remain across central and eastern Wyoming through the period. NEXT ISSUANCE DATE: This product will be updated by Saturday September 19th, 2020, or sooner if necessary, in response to significant changes in conditions.