Drought — Upper Yampa River Basin, Colorado

2025-10-01 to 2025-10-31 · Upper Yampa River Basin, Colorado

Event narrative

At the beginning of the month of October, the US Drought Monitor analyzed an area of Extreme (D3) Drought as covering roughly 40% of Colorado Zone 005 - Upper Yampa River Basin, with the remaining 60% under Severe (D2) Drought conditions. With the 10/14 Drought Monitor update, significant improvement was noted. Extreme (D3) Drought was completely removed, with 40% of zone now under Severe (D2) Drought conditions. Moderate (D1) Drought was introduced at this point, covering roughly 60% of the zone. From this point through the end of the month, no significant changes were noted.

Wider weather episode

A dry end to September and a dry start to October kept drought conditions consistent across much of eastern Utah and western Colorado at the start of the month. However, the arrival of deep tropical moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storms Priscilla and Raymond helped to substantially improve drought conditions, especially across southwest Colorado. In this region, drought was completely eradicated. Only portions of northeast Utah and northwest Colorado, where the deep tropical moisture did not reach, saw drought conditions persist more or less unchanged.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1296813. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.