Interesting symmetrical, repeating weather patterns.
https://www.ventusky.com/?p=26.2;-63.5;3&l=radar
>This is precisely why all BLM land out west should be opened up via a renewed Homestead Act.
Born and raised in the west, farming and ranching. There is a lot of land remaining in BLM management that would be arable if there was enough water available, but there isn't.
All of the potential water sources have been tapped and are used to the point of depletion. Some of the projects under the Taylor Grazing Act were some of the largest land modification schemes in history, and many of them made the situation even worse.
Developed springs for cattle and it lowers the water table too far for grasses to reach.
Impound runoff for livestock and it disturbs downstream ecosystems and lowers the water table.
Gouge out the playa's to concentrate water for cattle and you violate the clay layer which allows what little catchment there is to flow straight into the ground. That removes the seasonal impoundments that migrating waterfowl, songbirds, butterflies etc depended upon them for their annual migrations both ways.
The BLM lands are all used up because of overgrazing and mismanagement. Reducing grazing by 60-70% and removal of tens of thousands of "improvements" would, over time, restore the water table and allow limited homesteading on a very small scale. So small that it would not contribute in the slightest to relieving urban and suburban crowding.
To prove it to yourself, go to the NRCS soil survey and look at the ecosites and soils that have been inventoried on BLM land and you will see that the potential just isn't there for widespread development. In the north the land was originally grassland in large part, and that's what it should be managed as in the future. In the southern deserts dominated by salt desert shrubs, it won't even grow enough grass to sustain small holdings. Sorry.
https://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/soilsurvey/soils/survey/state/