From the morning paper, an exploration of what we mean by “drought”, with some stuff on the Sheffield Nature paper so talked recently in drought circles, along with the latest grim outlook: “Drought,” University of Arizona research Gregg Garfin said, “is defined by its impacts.” I realize this is a long-winded way of being very …
Continue reading ‘stuff I wrote elsewhere: “Depends on what you mean by ‘drought.’”’ »
From the work blog, some material from a discussion among drought researchers on the Sheffield Nature paper and the question of when the Palmer Drought Severity Index is or isn’t the right tool for the drought measurement job. Here’s Dave Gutzler: Despite its many limitations PDSI is still a meaningful indicator of short term climate …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I wrote elsewhere: on drought metrics’ »
From Saturday’s newspaper, my story about a state court ruling against a proposed groundwater transfer case in New Mexico: State officials made clear Friday that, while they ruled against this application because of its failure to specify where and how the water would be used, they do not in general oppose water transfers around the …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I wrote elsewhere: court rules against New Mexico water transfer’ »
The Sheffield et al drought paper in Nature that I blogged quickly about a couple of days ago has triggered all kinds of fascinating discussion among folks in the southwestern US “drought community” (yes, there is such a thing). In brief, Sheffield and colleagues argue that a careful application of the Palmer Drought Severity Index suggests …
Continue reading ‘So what exactly do we mean by “drought”?’ »
A new paper in today’s Nature by Justin Sheffield and colleagues suggests we’ve been using simplistic calculations that have overestimated the increase in drought globally over the last 60 years in response to greenhouse warming. Scientists typically use the Palmer Drought Severity Index, a bit a statistical black box that bases its drought estimate on …
Continue reading ‘Some good news today on climate change: less drought than we thought’ »
When the federal government and the seven US states that share the Colorado River signed their 2007 “Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and the Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead,” the final Record of Decision (pdf) included several chunks of legalese to the effect that the deal, while binding on the US …
Continue reading ‘How the US-Mexico Colorado shortage/surplus sharing deal works’ »
Many years ago, one of the newspapers I read (I think the Christian Science Monitor) held a contest, inviting readers to pen a weather forecast in the style of their favorite writer. I chose Hemingway: It was hot. Sadly, I never sent it in. This is one of my life’s great regrets. (Memory triggered by …
Just the blog equivalent of thinking out loud here. It’s not that this data was surprising to me, so much as that I wasn’t sure what to expect. Four cities in the western United States with some similar characteristics – arid climate, water supply challenges, growing populations. Each of the four is the dominant population …
Continue reading ‘nota bene: population growth in the West’s urban archipelago*’ »
At a water board meeting this afternoon, the attorney mentioned “Junior Wells”. My mind wandered: Turns out that wasn’t what he meant: During litigation involving one of the largest water plans developed in recent years, it was discovered that about 60,000 acre feet per year were being taken by junior wells from the South Platte …
A small but interesting water law/politics/policy case is emerging in northern New Mexico, involving a request by a Sangre de Cristo mountains ski area to use more water for its snow-making equipment. This is the sort of case that hinges on the withdrawal/consumption distinction – how much water a user withdraws from the system, versus …
Continue reading ‘Water transfers: the view from downstream’ »