For as long as he can remember, Rob Sowby has heard people call Utah the second-driest state in the nation. Over the years, that claim has become nearly inescapable, echoed by everyone from state departments, city governments and water conservancy districts to national news outlets without a clear citation for what data it’s based on. … Now a Brigham Young University civil engineering assistant professor focused on sustainable water supplies, he decided to get to the bottom of it. Using precipitation data, he found that Utah is actually the nation’s third-driest state, behind Nevada and Arizona.