As the severe drought continues to grip Utah and the West, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox issued a call to all Utahns regardless of religious affiliation to pray for rain.
Drive in any direction through Washington County, Utah and you’ll soon see yellow bulldozers piling up mounds of red dirt and black lava rock to make way for yet another housing development. According to the recent U.S. census, Utah was the fastest-growing state in the nation between 2010 and 2020, increasing its population at a blisteringly fast rate of 18.4%. And in its southwest corner, Washington County, with its stunning vistas, National Park access, recreation opportunities and warm, sunny climate led the state in that trend, attracting nearly 50,000 new residents over the last decade, a 36% increase over its 2010 population.
Those 50,000 new people are just the beginning of a growth pattern projected by the Gardner Institute to flood Washington County with 321,000 additional residents over the next 45 years, to reach a local population of 509,000 by 2065. That number of people 80% of the current population of Las Vegas will require a lot of water in this desert landscap
Deseret News
Share this story
The waters of the Great Salt Lake barely reach the marina on Antelope Island on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. As an unprecedented drought continues to grip the West, Gov. Spencer Cox issued a heartfelt call to Utahns on Thursday, asking them to pray for rain.
Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
As an unprecedented drought continues to grip the West, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox issued a heartfelt call to Utahns on Thursday, asking them to pray for rain.
“We need more rain, and we need it now,” Cox said in a video posted on Twitter. “We need some divine intervention.”