Text Products for DGT Issued by BOI

Drought Information Statement
Issued by NWS Boise, ID
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DROUGHT INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BOISE IDAHO
224 PM MDT Sun Oct 3 2021

...EXTREME TO EXCEPTIONAL DROUGHT CONTINUES ACROSS MUCH OF IDAHO...

Synopsis...

Idaho continues to experience the repercussions of low snowpack from
last winter, dry spring weather, and record summer heat. Above
normal precipitation in September across the northern Panhandle
Region brought small improvement to that area. However, fall weather
thus far has been warm with below normal precipitation for much of
the state, resulting in little change in the overall drought
situation compared to a month ago.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor released on September 30...100
percent of Idaho was experiencing some level of drought with the
worst conditions across portions of northern, central, and south-
central Idaho. Extreme(D3) to exceptional(D4) drought covers 63
percent of the state, including most of the Panhandle, north-central
Idaho, the central mountains (primarily east of the Sawtooth Range),
the Magic Valley area of the Snake River Plain, as well as south-
central and southeast Idaho near the Utah and Nevada borders.
Moderate(D1) to severe(D2) drought prevails elsewhere across Idaho.
The latest seasonal drought outlook (October 1 through December 31,
2021) indicates that drought will persist across the southern
half Idaho with improvement expected across the north.

Summary of Reported Impacts...

The Idaho Department of Water Resources declared drought emergencies
for Adams, Bear Lake, Bingham, Blaine, Bonneville, Butte, Camas,
Cassia, Clark, Custer, Elmore, Fremont, Gooding, Jefferson, Lemhi,
Lincoln, Madison, Teton, Twin Falls, and Valley Counties.

The USDA has designated all 44 counties in Idaho as either primary
or contiguous counties for Secretarial Disaster Designations due to
drought for the 2021 crop year.

In northern Idaho, reports from Benewah, Kootenai, Nez Perce and
Lewis Counties indicated that winter wheat was about 25 to 50
percent of normal. Hay was about a half to two thirds crop loss.
Some noted this was similar to what happened in 1977. The summer
heatwave did lead to animal deaths in some areas.

In central and southern Idaho, reservoir systems have been drawn
down to well below normal with little carry-over for the new water
year. Water deliveries were shut down very early for some areas.
Mountain Home Irrigation District and the Big Wood Canal Company
shut down storage deliveries in June with the Big Lost Irrigation
District ceasing storage deliveries in late July.

For the last week of September, the USDA indicated that 57 percent
of pasture and rangelands were in poor to very poor condition.
Topsoil was short to very short across 75 percent of the state with
subsoil moisture being short or very short for 73 percent of the
state.

Due to the threat of wildfire, state and federal land management
agencies implemented burn bans and fire restrictions across the
state.

Drought Impacts Reports can be found via the U.S. Drought Portal in
the related websites section.

Climate Summary...

Water-year 2021 precipitation (Oct 1, 2020-Sep 30, 2021) was well
below normal for the state as a whole, especially across central and
southern Idaho. The majority of south-central and southern Idaho
received 45 to 60 percent of normal precipitation. According to the
Idaho Department of Water Resources, during the period from March to
July, 2021, Idaho saw the second driest period on record, beat only
by the record set in 1924. Average temperatures for the 2021 Water
Year were above to much above normal for almost the entire state.
Record warmth occurred June through July with average temperature
anomalies of 5 to 8 degrees(F) above normal across the state.

Below is a list of precipitation data for selected locations in
Idaho for the 2021 Water-Year.

        Oct 1, 2020-Sep 30, 2021    Normal     Departure    Last
          Total Precip(Inches)      Value     From Normal   Year

BOISE             10.43             11.51       -1.08      13.29

MCCALL            19.03             23.06       -4.03      23.16

TWIN FALLS         6.14             10.28       -4.14       7.59

POCATELLO          8.14             11.82       -3.68      10.16

IDAHO FALLS        9.34             10.07       -0.73      10.98

CHALLIS            4.65              6.93       -2.28       7.22

STANLEY           12.99             17.86       -4.87      14.36

LEWISTON           7.59             12.87       -5.28      14.00


Hydrologic Summary...
Twenty-eight day average streamflows for most USGS gaging stations
across Idaho are below normal or much below normal, especially
across central and southern Idaho. A number of stream flows are in
the severe to extreme hydrologic drought categories.

Below is a summary of major reservoir system storage across Idaho
from the NRCS.

September 1, 2021                 % Capacity     % Average

Idaho Panhandle Region                96              105
(Hungry Horse...Flathead Lake...Noxon Rapids)

West Central Basins                   44               75
(Anderson Ranch...Arrowrock...Lucky Peak...Lake Lowell...
Deadwood...Cascade...Mann Creek)

Wood and Lost Basins                   2                9
(Mackay...Little Wood)

Upper Snake River Basin               27               53
(Jackson...Palisades...Henrys...Grassy...Island Park...Ririe
...American Falls)

Southside Snake River Basins          19               42
(Wild Horse...Lake Owyhee)

Bear River Basin                      44               89
(Bear Lake)

Precipitation and Temperature Outlook...
The three month outlook from the Climate Prediction Center for
October through December favors above normal temperatures and near
normal precipitation for the southern half of Idaho. Meanwhile, near
normal temperatures and above normal precipitation are favored for
the north half of the state.

Next Issuance...
Updates to this product are generally made on a monthly basis.

Related Websites...

U.S. DROUGHT PORTAL: HTTP://WWW.DROUGHT.GOV

NATIONAL DROUGHT MITIGATION CENTER: HTTP://DROUGHT.UNL.EDU

STREAM FLOWS: AHPS HTTP://WATER.WEATHER.GOV/AHPS USGS
HTTP://WATERWATCH.USGS.GOV

NWS WATER SUPPLY FORECASTS: HTTP://WWW.NWRFC.NOAA.GOV
HTTP://WWW.CBRFC.NOAA.GOV

NRCS WATER SUPPLY FORECASTS:
HTTP://WWW.WCC.NRCS.USDA.GOV/WSF/WSF.HTML

IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES: HTTP://WWW.IDWR.IDAHO.GOV

OREGON WATER RESOURCES DEPARTMENT (DROUGHT INFORMATION):
HTTP://WWW.OREGON.GOV/OWRD/PAGES/WR/DROUGHT.ASPX

LONG TERM WEATHER AND CLIMATE OUTLOOKS: HTTP://WWW.CPC.NCEP.NOAA.GOV

WESTERN REGION CLIMATE CENTER (CLIMATE ANOMALY MAPS):
HTTP://WWW.WRCC.DRI.EDU/MONITORING-MAPS/

NATIONAL INTERAGENCY COORDINATION CENTER (FIRE DANGER AND OUTLOOKS):
 HTTP://WWW.NIFC.GOV/NICC

RESERVOIR INFORMATION: NRCS HTTP://WWW.WCC.NRCS.USDA.GOV/BASIN.HTML
BUREAU OF RECLAMATION HTTP://WWW.USBR.GOV/PN/HYDROMET/SELECT.HTML

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE: DISASTER ASSISTANCE
HTTP://WWW.USDA.GOV/WPS/PORTAL/USDA/USDAHOME

Acknowledgments... The Drought Monitor is a multi-agency effort
involving NOAA`s National Weather Service and National Climatic Data
Center...The U.S. Department Of Agriculture...State and Regional
Centers...Climatologists...and the National Drought Mitigation
Center.

Information for this statement has been gathered from the NWS and
FFA observation sites...State Agencies...USDA...NRCS...USACE AND
USGS.

Questions or comments...If you have questions or comments about this
Drought Information Statement please contact...

National Weather Service
3833 South Development Avenue
Boise, ID 83705-5354
Phone: 208-334-9860
Email: w-boi.webmaster@noaa.gov

$$
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office
