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 Idaho 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 |
|---|
| D0 | Irrigation demand is higher than normal |
| Ski areas open later, visitation is lower, snowpack is lower |
| D1 | Deer are scrawny; bird population suffers due to loss of food and habitat; trees are stressed |
| Dryland hay and grain crop yields are low; other crops and pasture are in poor condition |
| Fire risk is elevated, fires spread easily |
| Well levels decline; reservoir levels are low; water shortages occur; water conservation programs are in place |
| D2 | Grazing season is shortened, vegetation is sparse; crops are left unharvested; feedlots are not profitable |
| Hydroelectric power is down; irrigation water allotments are significantly curtailed |
| River levels are very low |
| D3 | Dryland farms are left fallow; forage is limited; cattle herds are cut |
| Number of fires increase |
| Spring snowpack is very low |