Four Corners "Severe" To "Exteme" Drought Zone Growing; Home To 4.7 Million People Bracing For Fire
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A recent study in the journal Science concluded that global warming is responsible for about half the severity of the emerging megadrought, leaving the soil and vegetation parched and streams running low. Megadroughts are defined as dry periods lasting 20 years or more. "My gut is that we are really at the beginning, that it's going to get worse," said Becky Bolinger, assistant State Climatologist for Colorado. "I hope I'm wrong."
Ponderosa pine forests, redrock canyons and rolling desert vary the terrain in the region where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet. But heading into the summer, the water situation is grimly similar throughout the Four Corners. Streams are projected to run about half full, and ranchers, farmers and communities dotting the area will be forced to rely on groundwater and will likely face restrictions. And the praying's already started for generous monsoon rains to bring relief soon.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows a growing area of abnormally dry to severe drought conditions in the Four Corners as vast areas of "extreme drought" grow along Colorado's borders with New Mexico and Nebraska. Moderate to extreme drought now covers more than two thirds of Colorado, Utah and Nevada, and parts of northern Arizona and New Mexico. Nearly 4.7 million people live in these drought-stricken areas, including the entire Navajo Nation Reservation, where the battle to slow the spread of the coronavirus has been underway for months.
The combination of scant water and unusually high temperatures has left vegetation parched. "Crispy" is the word Bolinger recently used in a tweet to describe her state. For much of Utah, Nevada and northern New Mexico, vegetation is similarly dry. These conditions are actually more widespread than they were two years ago, when the 416 Fire broke out, and they appear to be part of an emerging and troubling climate pattern: the kind of fire-prone landscape that, according to Duthie's civil suit, resulted in 32 fires allegedly ignited by the coal-fired steam train in the weeks before the 416 Fire.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062020/drought-southwest-us-agriculture-water-rain-climate-change
= new reply since forum marked as read
The climate may be dry, but the weather is highly variable. 
(I live 24 highway miles from the 4C.) We have had a decent Spring, with thunderstorms rolling through the last couple weeks. I think the snowpack was roughly average this winter. They got snow up near Dove Creek last night, I think. 
