“This is not a wet place.”

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The University of Arizona’s Mike Crimmins:

But the real answer might be for Arizonans and other people of the southwest to adapt to living under drought conditions.

“We expect it to be a lot wetter than it is and it should be,” Crimmins said. “Just look around, the landscape tells the story. This is not a wet place. When it is wet we should just be thankful that it is and expect that most of the time it will be drier than our expectations.”

4 Comments

  1. I always joke that no one celebrates the “drought” but me.
    Tree rings from 2200 years tell us that this is normal.
    There are many ingenious responses to low rainfall,
    and this is the time to explore them. Pay attention to water
    use. Every time you open a tap, you are using something
    precious. Teach your children. Learn from others. Pay attention.

  2. john, Would on going drought have the potential to affect electric power reliability in New Mexico? I haven’t heard this discussed.

  3. Doug – Good question. I’ve never looked closely at this. My seat-of-the-pants answer is probably “no”, in part because I never hear about it. If there was a risk, the people who move water around and pay attention to the points of vulnerability would be talking about it, and they’re not. The big power plants on the San Juan have set up a shortage-sharing arrangement among water users that’s specifically aimed at avoiding the problem for power plants, but they’ve not had to implement it yet because there’s been enough water even in drought to meet all the deliveries up there. And I don’t think the smaller plants along the Rio Grande use all that much cooling water.

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