Mesa County is in a severe drought right now and the forecasts for rain aren’t good.
"You’re behind for many months and seasons and then that ends up and that’s why we’re in a severe drought,” said Strautins.
It’s from simply a lack of rain.
"We made the decision to move the community into voluntary water restrictions.
If this drought were to get any worse, those restrictions can change.
“That’s when we start to consider and evaluate mandatory water restrictions,” said Burtard.
Let’s break this down, Mesa County is in a severe drought right now and the next two levels are extreme and exceptional.
To conserve what we have.
"We are really asking both commercial and residential customers to evaluate their usage and turn off their ornamental fountains and maybe consider not filling up their swimming pools this summer,” said Burtard.
Because of the lack of snowpack on the Mesa, Ute water and the City of Grand Junction have to pull from different sources.

While there is a chance for rain in our future, experts with the Texas Tech School of Agriculture say we need a couple of substantial showers to get us out of this drought and into a good growing season.
In 2011, Lubbock broke the record for worst drought since 1917 with around five inches of rain for the whole year.
"Some producers are still waiting to see if there is enough rain to see if it is worth it to get a crop going, so we are at a critical junction right now."
This drought will not only affect agriculture producers, but local businesses as well.
If you’re in a demographic where most of the economy is cotton farming and agriculture you better be concerned," Cruse said.
With no rain, the Texas Agriculture group loses and so will Lubbock.
"Those outlying towns are impacted pretty heavily, but that impacts people inside of Lubbock as well," Hudson said.
"We don’t think about it, but if you’re running a car dealership or you’re a sales person at Dillard’s, so many people are impacted by agriculture that as their income slows in flow it really makes a difference."
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David Simeral, Western Regional Climate Center The current weather pattern continues to keep the storm clouds away from North Texas.
Normally, we would be concerned with dry weather this time of year.
After all, we count on rain in May.
It’s typically the wettest month of the year, averaging 4.9” at D/FW International Airport historically.
Fortunately, we received some good rain earlier this month.
Even with these significant “dry stretches,” North Texas is still in good shape for the year.
Unfortunately, the situation is much worse in West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.
That part of the state missed out on the beneficial rain earlier this year.
Only isolated thunderstorms are expected in the panhandle over the next several days.
Thus, no significant drought relief is expected anytime soon.

As global temperatures continue to rise, people around the globe will have to figure out how to manage with less water.
This week we looked at how one city united to tackle its water crisis, and found other tales of people coming together and turning around bleak situations.
Krista Mahr visited South Africa’s second city to find out how they did it, and what lessons can be learned by cities facing up to similar emergencies.
In Todmorden, residents got their hands dirty and found a solution.
Naomi Larsson visited the tiny Yorkshire town from which a global movement has grown.
What we heard: My local community got permission to turn disused land surrounded by houses into a community garden.
We grow far more food than we can eat ourselves so we hold public open days and donate excess to the local community centre, who distribute it to those who need it.
Commenter Cade writing below the line on our piece about guerilla gardening It’s fantastic that they averted this, but surely one of the takeaways is that people are capable of living with less and moderating their habits if they understand the consequences – or if the consequences are severe enough.
Thomas1178 writing below the line on Cape Town’s comeback from water disaster Where was the upside?
If there is a story, innovation or trailblazer you think we should report on, write to us at theupside@theguardian.com Voting is now open for the 15th Observer Food Monthly Awards, so don’t miss your chance to support the best ethical food project of 2018.

The state’s climatologist, John Nielsen-Gammon, said cities that draw their water from the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers are not worried yet, but farmers should be.
This was true in Victoria, where the city plans not to restrict residents’ water usage until the Guadalupe’s flow falls at or below 200 cubic feet per second.
At about the same time, though, Chris Buzek was traversing his more than 2,500 acres of corn, milo, cotton and soybeans, praying for rain.
Buzek, a 30-year-old who took over his father’s farm after his death in 2009, said more than 1 inch of rain would be especially helpful.
“But we will deal with whatever Mother Nature gives us and go on down the road,” he said.
He said that saved those crops from Hurricane Harvey last year.
Not all were so lucky.
Some are using this as an opportunity to stress the importance of conserving water.
The Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation, for example, are recommending that all Texas cities limit outdoor watering to no more than two days per week to deal with what they call “climatic whiplash” and an expected population growth of 23 million by 2050.
And these groups last gave Victoria a score of 52 out of 100 when it comes to water conservation.

“Drought conditions continue to be the driving factor in planning and budgeting this year.
If conditions persist, there will be fewer producers next year.” This comment from a banker in the Texas Panhandle paints a stark picture of how this year’s expanding drought is limiting business opportunities for farmers in the Southern Plains and Southwest.
The persistent dry weather is bruising the area’s winter wheat crop and limiting grazing opportunities, according to banker responses to the 2018 First Quarter Agricultural Credit Conditions Survey in the Eleventh Federal Reserve District—an area that includes Texas, the southern half of New Mexico and the northern half of Louisiana.
This is an improvement, as three months ago drought conditions plagued nearly 67% of the country.
Currently, the driest conditions cover the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and the four-corner region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.
These levels of exceptional drought cover 2.3% of the continental U.S., while extreme drought covers 9.3%.
According to the May 7 USDA Texas Crop Progress and Condition report, winter wheat in the north-central Plains remained in poor condition.
“Drought is hurting our ag customers, and we are approaching the critical stage,” reports a banker in the Southern High Plains of Texas.
While the majority—84.5%—of bankers surveyed say credit standards for agricultural loans have remained stable over the past three months compared to a year earlier, 15.5% say they have tightened.
Will the Drought Continue?

0 Storms that swept across Central Texas last week and dropped several inches of rain were successful in relieving moderate drought conditions in much of the region, according to a map released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Farmers also have benefited from the replenished soil moisture and will see a couple of weeks of growth for seeds that are already in the ground like grain sorghum, said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state’s climatologist with Texas A&M University.
The wet weather also opened up a window of opportunity for farmers to plant new crops, like cotton, a recent crop report shows.
While the latest analysis is good news heading into the drier summer months, don’t celebrate just yet, University of Texas meteorology lecturer Troy Kimmel said.
The relief might be short-lived.
For instance, May tends to be rather wet but no rain is in the immediate forecast, and we’re nearly halfway into the month.
“Unless we get some rain, this (relief) is going to be temporary,” Kimmel said.
The first chance at a widespread rain event won’t come until the week after next, forecasters have said.
“It is interesting last week we had that heavy rain in Austin, especially at Camp Mabry, but the deficit for the year that was erased came back in three days,” Kimmel said.
But in the dry days that followed, Austin’s rainfall deficit since the year’s start is at about a half-inch — and growing.

Cyprus is in its third year of drought with water in dams at the lowest levels since 2008, Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis said on Thursday.
In a statement, he said that 10 years ago, the island had to bring in water via tanks from abroad, and now demand for water far exceeds the supply available.
The ministry must now decide how to distribute water, particularly with farmers, Kadis said.
Starting this year, there will be cuts in irrigation but not in domestic supply.
“With the available quantities of water at the moment, we can cover the needs for water regarding our farms and crops to preserve the trees.
Our priority is supplying water to greenhouses while for seasonal crops, the quantity of water distributed will be reduced.” Under no circumstances will the ministry sit back with its hands crossed and it recognises the need to support farmers, Kadis said.
Requests to the European Commission have already been filed for additional support for damages, he outlined.
Works are currently in progress to create a desalination plant in Paphos while the cabinet has recently approved talks which allow desalination units in Episkopi and Vasiliko to significantly increase their capacity.
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This week’s storm activity led to targeted improvements in drought-related conditions in portions of Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and Florida while conditions deteriorated in parts of the Desert Southwest, northern Plains, and the Midwest.
Southeast On this week’s map, conditions remained status quo in northern portions of the region while short-term precipitation deficits during the past 30 days led to expansion of areas of Abnormally Dry (D0) in southern Alabama and in northwestern Florida near the Apalachicola River.
In contrast, much of west-central Florida largely missed out on precipitation this week leading to expansion of areas of Moderate Drought (D1) in Sarasota County where rainfall deficits are in the 2-to-4 inch range for the past 60 days.
In northeastern Georgia, areas of Abnormally Dry (D0) and Moderate Drought (D1) expanded slightly in response to short-term precipitation deficits during the last 60-day period and low streamflows.
South On this week’s map, improvements were made across parts of Texas (central, southern, western) where scattered showers and thunderstorms late last week and into the weekend produced locally heavily rainfall accumulations ranging from 2-to-5 inches while the drought-stricken Panhandle region remained hot and dry leading to slight expansion of areas of Extreme Drought (D3) and Exceptional Drought (D4).
Midwest On this week’s map, areas of Abnormally Dry (D0) and Moderate Drought (D1) were reduced in southwestern Iowa in response to rainfall accumulations of 2-to-3 inches.
High Plains On this week’s map, locally heavy rains (3-to-5 inches) impacted isolated areas of northeastern Kansas leading to reduction in areas of Moderate Drought (D1).
For the week, the region was warm and dry (with the exception of portions of northeastern Kansas, northeastern Colorado, and southeastern Wyoming) with temperatures well above normal and maximum daily temperatures exceeding 80°F.
West On this week’s map, areas of Extreme Drought (D3) expanded in north-central Arizona and central New Mexico.
Average temperatures were well above normal in the northern half of the region while the southern half was near normal.

Cape Town’s dam levels remain very low at 20.9% on 7 May.
But a key difference is that the city’s residents use a lot less water now than then.
Water use last week averaged 519 million litres per day compared to well over 700 million litres daily at the same time last year.
While commendable, it’s not sustainable.
The City regularly publishes updates on how municipal water is being augmented (added to) by drilling for water in the aquifers (groundwater), desalination, recycling and increasing dam water (surface water).
Here are the main measures the City is taking to increase the water supply: Implement a new water reuse (recycling) plant on the Cape Flats producing 70 million litres per day by 2020.
Increase the amount of surface water available by about 60 million litres daily (this depends on national government projects too).
Also, UCT scientists estimate that the City could augment the water supply by about 100 million litres daily by clearing alien plants that are preventing water from getting into the dams.
The main dams providing water to the farms, Theewaterskloof (11.3% now vs 16.3% same week last year) and Voëlvlei (14.4% vs 18.8%), are at considerably lower levels than last year.
Many farms will struggle to survive if the drought continues.