Utah's October rainfall was 80 percent lower than the month's average.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that historically, October has been the start of the state's rainy season. Most of the month's rainfall this year, however, was in isolated mountainous areas and was extremely sparse.
The federal Natural Resources Conservation Service states that Utah's valley floors averaged 0 inches of rainfall.
Brian McInernery, a hydrologist for the National Weather Service, says Salt Lake City received just .18 inches of rain last month, well short of the October normal of about 1.52 inches.
McInernery says similarly dry conditions prevailed over most of the western U.S., with the southwest in particular seeing a near-complete absence of October precipitation.
