Current Impacts
To see or report current drought impacts, please visit the Drought Impacts Toolkit, where you can find impacts from media in the Drought Impact Reporter and from citizen scientists and other volunteer observers under Condition Monitoring Observations.
Historic Impacts
No two states have the same experience during a drought. Below are examples of some of the impacts experienced in Colorado in the past. The process for developing this example impact table is described in Noel, M., Bathke, D., Fuchs, B., Gutzmer, D., Haigh, T., Hayes, M., Poděbradská, M., Shield, C., Smith, K. and Svoboda, M., 2020. Linking drought impacts to drought severity at the state level. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 101(8), pp.E1312-E1321. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0067.1. To view a more complete record, and to filter impacts by drought severity, sector and season, check out the interactive State Impacts Tool.
Category | Examples of historically observed impacts |
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D0 | Hay production decreases; rangeland is dry |
Irrigation begins sooner |
D1 | Dryland crops suffer |
Pheasant population declines; ski season is limited |
Rangeland growth is stunted; very little hay is available |
Wildfires increase |
D2 | CRP lands suffer |
Farmers reduce planting; producers sell cattle |
Fire season is extended |
Snowpack is low; surface water levels are low; river flow is reduced |
D3 | City landscapes are dying |
Grasshopper and insect infestation are noted |
Large fires develop |
Pasture conditions worsen |
Rafting, fishing, hunting, skiing are reduced; fish kills occur |
Reservoirs are extremely low; mandatory water restrictions are implemented; water temperature increases |
D4 | Agricultural and recreational economic losses are large |
Dust storms and topsoil removal are widespread |