"Atmospheric rivers" in California and record blizzards in Colorado have been dominating the headlines in recent months, but the ongoing news is that much of West remains in a serious drought.

"The winter storm that dropped feet of snow in parts of Colorado and Wyoming this week also drenched the Central U.S.," notes this week's report from the National Integrated Drought Information System. "However, the precipitation mostly missed the Colorado River Basin, and conditions in the Southwest remain dire."

A CNN report echoed that assessment: “The weather patterns have left parts of the Northwest soggy, but still, 80% of the land in the western states face some official category of drought. That is nearly half of the entire continental U.S. The drought is affecting more than 70 million people."

The story also reports that "all of Nevada, Utah and New Mexico are in some kind of drought according to the US Drought Monitor. Close behind are Arizona and Colorado. The latter state got a significant boost from the recent blizzard, which helped Colorado reach 91% of its median snowpack for mid-March. However, Colorado Public Radio reports that 16% of the state still faces “exceptional drought.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox declared a state of emergency on March 17 given that “100% of the state is in the moderate drought category and 90% of the state is experiencing extreme drought.” The Governor also asked Utahns “to evaluate their water use and find ways to save.” North Dakota is experiencing increased drought and worsening wildfire conditions as well. The Bismarck Tribune reports “the western two-thirds of North Dakota, 80% of the state, is now in severe drought.” Climatologists at the National Drought Mitigation Center told the Tribune that "livestock producers in the Dakotas are already separating out their animals in anticipation of needing to sell some off due to drought in the region."

Eight states in the West are trying to create more precipitation through "cloud seeding," a process that sends tiny bits of silver iodide into the clouds in the hopes that it will cluster with water droplets to produce rain or snow. Scientific American reports the practice has been around for decades, but "scientists aren’t sure how well cloud seeding works today." Read more.

MUSSEL WORK: Invasive species don’t ask for permission to invade habitat. Often, they don’t even “invade,” they are accidentally introduced by another party. That seems to be the case in Wyoming, where Gov. Mark Gordon has convened an emergency panel to investigate how Zebra mussels wound up in  aquarium products for sale in the state. The Associated Press reports that the mussels “turned up in globs of algae called moss balls sold in pet stores in over two dozen states, including Wyoming, which has banned further imports of the products.” Gov. Gordon called the situation “an urgent matter that potentially affects Wyoming’s water infrastructure, lakes and rivers.”

STRUGGLING TO EAT: Food insecurity, a fact of life for many families in the West before the pandemic, has become more pronounced in the past year. A KUNR report illustrates how families in the Rocky Mountain West are struggling to feed their families. The nonprofit Feeding America reported last year that Nevada and New Mexico have some of the highest rates of child food insecurity in the country. It's not just the pandemic that's impacting food insecurity, said Jocelyn Lantrip of the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. “Our low-income neighbors had not recovered from the recession,” Lantrip said. “We had significant issues with people who are working full-time jobs and still couldn't pay their bills.” Listen to the story.

LAST EXIT: Every city is struggling during the pandemic, but the challenge is particularly difficult, and unusual, in Point Roberts, Washington. Even though the idyllic town is connected to Canada, High Country News reports that its location “below the 49th parallel, the line that separates Canada and the U.S.,” means that citizens must pass through two Canadian border checkpoints to reach the U.S. mainland. And, of course, neighboring Canadians must pass a checkpoint to visit them. After the arrival of COVID-19 the borders were closed in both directions. Some allowances have been made in the past month, but it has still impacted the people and economy of Point Roberts.

STATE OF THE STATE: Western Governors have been delivering their annual State of the State address in recent months. Watch all addresses delivered by Western Governors to date and see a ‘word cloud’ of the top issues discussed by Jared Polis of Colorado, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Mike Dunleavy of Alaska, Greg Gianforte of Montana, Doug Burgum of North Dakota, Brad Little of Idaho, Doug Ducey of Arizona, Laura Kelly of Kansas, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Steve Sisolak of Nevada, Kate Brown of Oregon, Spencer Cox of Utah, David Ige of Hawaii, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Jay Inslee of Washington, Mark Gordon of Wyoming, Gavin Newsome of California, and Lemanu Mauga of American Samoa. Read, watch all addresses.

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