Drought Conditions Improve Slightly Throughout State However Worsen In Upper Missouri River Basin

According to the latest report to the Governor’s Drought and Water Supply Advisory Committee, recent rainfall across most of Montana has done little to pull the state out of long-term drought conditions.

“We saw the third warmest August on record and September saw temperatures more than five degrees above average across much of the state,” said Michael Downey, drought program coordinator with the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. “High summer temperatures have depleted streams, and two years of severe to extreme drought has severely impacted Montana’s natural resources, agriculture, and recreation economies.”

Currently, 82 percent of the state is classified as abnormally to severely dry, and 12 percent of the state remains in extreme drought conditions according to experts with the Committee. At the same time last year, 66 percent of the state was in extreme or exceptional drought conditions.

Parts of northeast, southwest, and southeast Montana have been in a drought status for the last 728 days. While not a record, it is the longest period of continuous drought in Montana since the early 2000s with conditions equally and in some cases more severe.

“While we did see an improvement in drought conditions when compared to the same time last year, the state remains in a long-term pattern of severe drought that will require significant moisture to break the drought cycle,” said Downey.

Within the Missouri River Basin, September precipitation was once again below average. September runoff in the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, was 0.6 million acre-feet, 47 percent of the long-term average. Soil conditions in the upper Missouri River Basin continue to be very dry.

According to the Drought Mitigation Center, over 90 percent of the Missouri River basin is currently experiencing some form of abnormally dry conditions or drought, which is almost a 20 percent increase from the end of August.

Public Meetings are held each spring and fall across the Missouri River basin. Fall public meetings provide an update on current year’s runoff and reservoir operations as well as planned operations for the next year’s runoff season.

The Annual Operating Plan for the next year’s runoff season is released for public comment in September, presented at the public meetings and finalized at the end of the calendar year. Spring public meetings provide a status of mountain snowpack, a runoff forecast for the year, and how operations during the runoff year will meet the authorized purposes for the Missouri.

The Spring Public Meeting will be held at the Fort Peck Interpretative Center, Yellowstone Road, at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 24.

The Draft Annual Operating Plan and Fall public meeting schedule can be found at http://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/MRWM/Public-Meetings/.

Despite a forecast for a warmer than average temperatures through October, a rare “triple dip” La Nina is forecasted to impact the climate and weather through much of the winter. Experts at the National Weather Service are cautiously optimistic that above normal precipitation may help alleviate ongoing drought conditions across the state.