August is generally the wettest month of the year for much of the Intermountain West, but so far it hasn’t lived up to its reputation. in a webinar on Aug. 5, Colorado state climatologist Russ Schumacher said that about 73 percent of the Intermountain West is in drought. That’s a doubling from 36 percent as of Oct. 1, which marks the beginning of the water year. Cortez worsened from moderate to severe drought at the end of July. However, in recent days somewhat cooler weather and occasional thunderstorms have helped firefighters battling blazes in the Four Corners states. According to information from the incident management team for the Stoner Mesa Fire, cooler weather has been favorable for creating containment lines. The fire is burning in rugged terrain about 11 miles northeast of the town of Dolores. As of Friday morning, it was at about 7,400 acres. Possible thunderstorms aren’t expected to bring enough rain to significantly dampen the fire. At the 145,000-acre Dragon Bravo Fire on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, containment has gone up to 56 percent. Thunderstorms are expected to bring intermittent heavy rain there, but not enough to extinguish the blaze, which has been burning for more than a month. A flash-flood watch has been issued for the fire area, making things potentially risky for firefighters.
Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.