Iron County Record | 1960-02-04 | Page 1 | Precipitation Study Made by CSU Department Head

Precipitation Study Made by CSU Department Head If you're one of those old-fashioned folks that keeps insisting our climate in the Cedar City area is dryer than "it used to be" - you're 100 correct, according ac-cording to Prof. Theron Ashcroft, chairman of the division of engineering engi-neering and math at College of Southern Utah. Evidence now shows that 1959 was the driest year ever recorded In Cedar City since the beginning of record keeping In 1899. Information was compiled from U. S. Weather Bureau records by( Prof. Ashcroft. Records show that during the first 20 years records were kept, not one year fell below the 10 inch of precipitation mark, but during the 20 years since 1939, half of the years have been below the 10-Inch mark. Prof. Ashcroft prepared a chart showing the precipitation trend since 1906 and said that if the present trend continues for the next 50 years, the area will have j - r- ---- "Of course, many things could ( happen to change the picture," he added. Any land area with precipitation precipita-tion less than 10 Inches a year is considered desert. January 1959 to January 1960 there was a recorded precipitation of 4.98 Inches In the Cedar City area. He indicated that according to archeologlsts, a drought of 24-years 24-years duration drove the natives from this region in about the year 1276 A. D. He indicated that already the year 1960 is appearing appear-ing brighter with near normal precipitation in the mountains.