Last week, Utah State University hosted a webinar for natural resource professionals to discuss a drought reporting network called âCondition Monitoring Observer Reports.â Through a mobile app, Utah citizens can document drought impacts and submit their observations to a database used by state and university drought researchers and scientists. The data can help give scientists a more qualitative, detailed understanding of on-the-ground conditions and impacts of drought. Are farmersâ crops, or ranchersâ grazing areas, being affected? Are recreation areas changing? Photographs showing a location in a wet year and later in a dry year can give helpful comparative references.
Details like these, giving a fuller picture of what it means to be in a condition of drought, are increasingly important to scientists, policy-makers, and citizens of the Southwest as we grapple with the ongoing dry conditions. On March 17, Utah Governor Spencer Cox declared Utah to be in a state of emergency due to drought; 90% of the state is considered to be in âextremeâ drought, and the entire state is in at least âmoderateâ drought. All of Grand County is in the âextremeâ category, and some of the county is in the even more severe âexceptionalâ drought category.