St. George has broken a record it wishes it hadn't. The city has gone 122 days without any measurable precipitation, the longest such stretch since the National Weather Service starting keeping records for the southern Utah city in 1893.
The previous record of 121 days was set 90 years ago, in 1929.
“This isn’t a good record to break,” said Ron Thompson, general manager of the Washington County Water Conservancy District.
According to his organization, southern Utah has had 12 years of drought in the past two decades. St. George hasn't had rain since June 18, putting a strain on water supplies.
“Fortunately, we have local water storage that will meet the region’s immediate needs,” Thompson said, “but this prolonged drought underscores the need to diversify and enhance our water supplies to protect our communities.”
There’s no end in sight to the drought. The NWS forecast for St. George calls for sunny days through Wednesday, with highs in the upper 70s-low 80s and lows in the mid- to upper 40s. And here’s no rain in the St. George forecast.
In the Salt Lake City area, temperatures are about to take a dive. Temperatures are expected to be near 70 on Thursday, then fall to the low- to mid-50s on Friday and Saturday and barely above 40 on Sunday. Overnight lows will dip into the mid-20s.
There's a chance of rain, possibly mixed with snow, Thursday into Friday. There's a 60 percent chance of rain on Saturday morning and a 100 percent chance on Saturday night, according to the NWS. In Provo and Logan, it's a 90% chance of rain and snow.
And that means that fans attending Saturday’s Utah-Arizona State football game at Rice-Eccles Stadium (4 p.m.), the Portland-Real Salt Lake soccer match at Rio Tinto Stadium (8 p.m.), the Boise State-BYU football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium (8:15 p.m.), and the Nevada-Utah State football game in Maverik Stadium (8:15 p.m.) are probably all going to get wet.
