Just totaling up my rainfall to send in to the National Weather Service: 1.4 inches (35.5 mm) in August. The official Albuquerque total, out at the airport, was 1.05 inches (26.7 mm). Around town, from the COCORAHS network, totals ranged from a low of 0.54 inch (13.7 mm) out on the southwest mesa to a …
Based on all the reporting I’ve been doing for the Albuquerque Journal, it seems to me that you could easily substitute “New Mexico” for “Colorado” in this story: The issue is critical in Western states such as Colorado, where even in wet years almost every river already is “over-appropriated,” with insufficient water to satisfy demand. …
paper of the day: More melting, this time in British Columbia. “The recent rate of glacier loss in the Coast Mountains (17.0 km?3a?1) is approximately double that observed for the previous two decades.” reading: Super Crunchers – yet more on why the algorithms are smarter than the humans and will eventually take over the world …
bosque-pond Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. The picture’s a tease. It was taken last October, so think of it as a hint of things to come. But the hints were there aplenty this morning on my bike ride along the riverside trail – little sprinklings of single yellow leaves on the cottonwoods. We’re still in summer, …
My colleague Sean Olson illustrates in this morning’s paper his grasp of the connection between water and growth: A request for water and sewer service for Westland DevCo’s southwest Albuquerque development was approved by the water board this week, even though it met heavy resistance from two city councilors. Michael Cadigan and Isaac Benton on …
Autumn’s Advance Guard Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. I haven’t been taking notes, so I can’t be sure, but Aug. 12 seems awfully early for roasting chiles. It’s the smell of fall here in Albuquerque, as they put the big gas-fired roasters out in market parking lots. You buy a bag and they roast ’em for …
Added Laura Paskus’s High Desert Reports to my blogroll and feed reader. She’s a freelance journalist here in New Mexico who does a good job of paying a lot of attention to issues I’m trying to keep better track of. I’m a bit slow on the uptake, but I reached the point where I said …
squirrelOriginally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Some random notes arising from cleaning off my desk and related spaces in my brain. Not sure this hangs together, but I need to put it somewhere so I can get on with my afternoon: Walking this morning with Lissa and Sadie along Embudo Arroyo, a concrete arroyo in Albuquerque’s Northeast …
It was pouring rain when I left the office this evening, so I took surface streets rather than the messy freeway. The concrete arroyo by my work was running high as I passed, so I started slowing and watching every time I went over one. They were raging and roiling and doing their best to …
The Value of Water in Alternative UsesOriginally uploaded by heinemanfleck. I recently scored a fascinating volume at the used bookstore: “The Value of Water in Alternative Uses, With Special Application to Water Use in the San Juan and Rio Grande Basins of New Mexico.” Published in 1962, it’s the result of a study of the …