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 Wyoming 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 | Fishing restrictions are issued |
D1 | Creeks and rivers are low; less irrigation water is available |
Fewer wildflowers bloom |
Fire danger is elevated; fire and firework restrictions are implemented |
Hay and forage yield is low; producers give supplemental feed to cattle |
D2 | Pasture conditions are poor; overgrazing is reported; hay is scarce; producers are selling cattle; dust increases |
Trees and vegetation are stressed |
Water pressure is low; well levels decline |
D3 | Snowpack is poor |
Surface water for is inadequate for ranching and farming |