rain

The water year that ended Sept. 30 was one of the driest on record for parts of the state, including Salt Lake City and St. George.

After a promising forecast, monsoon rains ghosted Utah for most of the summer. While the recent showers were a welcome relief, they couldn’t help the state climb out of its precipitation deficit.

Since 2000, heat has become the primary force behind how severe and widespread Western droughts get.

The timing and intensity of desert monsoons are notoriously hard to predict. But signs point toward some rainy relief for Utah communities in the grip of drought.

Although Utah’s reservoirs are in good shape now, soil dried out by the summer heat could mean water problems for the runoff next spring if monsoons don’t pick up.

How much rain? Salt Lake City, Spanish Fork, Provo and Lehi all recorded more rain on Monday and Tuesday than in a typical entire month of August.

The monsoon has fizzled so far this year in Utah. Even so, it’s “been a tale of two summers” where northern Utah has been drier than the southern end of the state.

Thunderstorms are hopscotching around the Southwestern U.S., bringing much-needed moisture to a region where every drop counts.

The hot, dry outlook for this summer’s rainy season shows Utah’s recent string of wetter-than-average years may be coming to an end.

Utah municipalities involved in the program say interest has spiked since the extreme drought in 2020.

It’s uniquely hard to predict Utah’s weather patterns because of where it’s located, but the hive is in the midst of a wet cycle.

St. George just broke its all-time record for the most precipitation during a water year, which is measured from October to October.