by Elise Schmelzer, The Denver Post
Drought in the American West is becoming a persistent reality instead of a periodic emergency due to climate change, and a recent study found that an essential tool used to measure drought can’t keep up.
Every week since 1999, the U.S. Drought Monitor has published a new map showing drought conditions across the country, with five categories of drought severity depicted in shades of yellows, oranges and reds. Policymakers and elected leaders in Colorado and other states use the map to make critical decisions about water use, campfire bans, declarations of emergency and more.
And multiple federal agencies use the map to determine how much financial aid is filtered to ranchers and farmers in times of drought.