Click the link to read the article on The Deseret News website (Amy Joi O’Donoghue). Here’s an excerpt:
Poll probes attitudes on drought, weather in Utah
A new poll shows that while more than 8 in 10 Utah residents remain concerned over the drought impacting the state, the series of storms this winter leaving a bountiful mountain snowpack have more than half of them less concerned than last year…When it came to views people have regarding Utah’s drought in general, 85% of survey participants said they were concerned, 14% said they were not concerned, while another 1% said they did not know…But with winter storms pounding the state, delivering snow levels well above average and in some areas like southern Utah nearly twice what is average, the poll shows some residents’ concern over drought is starting to wane. More than half of those polled, over 52%, said they are less concerned about drought than last year, 14% remain more concerned, 34% have about the same attitude and 1% don’t know…
“When people are seeing the above normal precipitation and snowpack, they’re talking about meteorological drought, which it’s something that we welcome and we are seeing improvements, of course, in that area,” Clayton said. “The one that’s going to take a much longer time to get out of is the hydrological drought, which is essentially our storage systems, our reservoirs — all of our surface water storage.”