Over on the work blog, I’m hosting an impromptu exchange between Cristina Archer and Roger Pielke Sr. over the question of the extent to which the jet stream is moving north, potentially drying out the southwest, and the implications of the current year’s southern storm track for thinking about that hypothesis. (comments off here, comments …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: On Weather and Climate’ »
The Bureau of Reclamation has tuned up its estimates of the chances of release of extra water to help Lake Mead, now putting them at one in four this year, according to an update published today (Wed. 2/10). The jargon here is “equalization,” which happens when there is enough extra water upstream in Lake Powell …
Continue reading ‘Chances of Extra Water for Mead Remain Low’ »
Following a trail of bread crumbs from James Lawrence Powell’s Dead Pool led me to the tale of Tom Udall’s trip down Glen Canyon with his dad as a boy (sub/ad req). Udall, now a U.S. Senator from New Mexico, is the son of former Arizona congressman and Kennedy-Johnson Interior Secretary Stewart Udall: Glen Canyon …
Continue reading ‘Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere: The Udalls and Glen Canyon Dam’ »
George Knapp on the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the agency that supplies Las Vegas (Nev.) with water: Cockroaches have nothing on the water authority. Both would survive nuclear winter. A giant asteroid could wipe out half the globe, and the authority would march into the crater to file for water rights.
It’s no Yolo Bypass, but the Albuquerque Metropolitan Flood Control Authority pond up by my work is testament to the fact that if you add water to an arid ecosystem, stuff happens. Located at the end of the concrete-lined North Pino Arroyo, the pond is a holding basin, design to trap sediments and contaminants before …
As a native Southern Californian with a deep attachment to its deserts, this paper is just heartbreaking. Lesley DeFalco of the USGS and colleagues describe the effect of variable climate extremes and wildfire in the last decade on populations of desert plants, most especially Yucca brevifolia – the Joshua Tree: Accentuated ENSO episodes and more …
The median forecast for flows on the upper Colorado River, out this morning, is 5.8 million acre feet, 73 percent of normal. That is down 400,000 acre feet from a month ago, and represents a continued reduction in the probability that there will be extra water upstream to pass down to replenish Lake Mead. Flows …
Working on a piece last year about the Colorado River Delta, a couple of people mentioned the remarkable thing that happened when surplus water spilled Lake Mead in (I think, going from memory here) the El Nino year of 1983 and for a brief shining time the Colorado made it all the way to the …
With a half an inch of snow in the back yard this morning, I’m reminded of one of my favorite bits of data-gathering described in my book. In addition to the stories of scientists who study western climate, we included activities for young people to do for themselves. Weather and climate are the most accessible …
Bob Berwyn has a nice rundown on the process now underway at the Colorado Water Conservation Board to determine how much water is left in the Colorado River for the state of Colorado to develop. Here’s the nut of the issue: After conducting what they say is one of the most rigorous studies ever of …
Continue reading ‘How Much Water Does the State of Colorado Have?’ »