The Bureau of Reclamation’s study of supply and demand in the Colorado River Basin is due out tomorrow, and already it’s been getting a lot of attention. Bruce Finley at the Denver Post and Felicity Barringer at the New York Times have both highlighted the study’s consideration of the “pipeline to the Missouri” option, one of …
Continue reading ‘Why the Basin Study is not about a pipeline to the Missouri’ »
New Mexico’s 2012 weather feels increasingly like a teachable moment, though the lessons must be handled with care. As the folks in the local media-weather complex went into stormpocalypse mode over the possibility that it might actually snow this weekend, I took pause in Saturday’s paper to look back: The storm comes as New Mexico …
We’ve not had much opportunity of late to measure snow here in Albuquerque, so I had to snag this picture from some time ago. But it’s that time of year when thoughts of weather nerds turn to the snow in their backyards, which offers me another chance to flog my book, which would be a …
The All-American Canal, which grabs water from Imperial Dam and runs it along the north side of the California-Baja border before delivering it to Imperial Valley farmers, was built at some great expense to replace the original wandering route that took the water south into Mexico before curving back north to US farms. The folks …
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples is setting up a run for lieutenant governor. Making the rounds, he ended up this week in the dry parts of the state, where folks naturally asked him about water: “When I talk to companies about them expanding in Texas or moving to Texas,” he said, “inevitably two questions come …
Continue reading ‘In Texas, water policy is a front burner political issue’ »
Regular readers will know of my obsession with pushing beyond the “OMG we’re running out of water!” story line to look in detail at who, specifically, gets shorted when supplies run low and what adaptive responses they have available. In New Mexico, water managers are using the occasion of our current drought to helpfully prepare …
Continue reading ‘Possible San Juan-Chama water shortages’ »
Hannah Holm of Colorado Mesa University had a good piece earlier this month in the Grand Junction Free Press outlining the future risks facing Colorado River water users and managers: A heavy train is moving at 5 miles per hour toward… a cliff? A collision? And how far away might this unknown calamity be? These …
Continue reading ‘The shortcomings of the Colorado train wreck metaphor’ »
I love the way “atmospheric river” has now entered the public weather discussion lexicon: Enjoy the dry, cool days that mark the start of this week in the Sacramento area. Then get ready for an “atmospheric river” late in the week that will bring perhaps 3 inches of rain to the Valley, the National Weather …
Continue reading ‘atmospheric river headed California way’ »
Another episode in my effort to explore the meaning of “drought” by way of example. Up on Albuquerque’s north side is a spot the birders call the “Tramway wetland”*. It’s the spot where the main flood control channel for much of Albuquerque slows before entering the Rio Grande. The local flood control authority has designed …
Continue reading ‘More on the definition of “drought”: a dry spot’ »
This is August 2012 along the Duranes ditch in Albuquerque’s north valley. The ditch on the left is relatively new. The spur to the right, obscured by the sunflowers, has been in continuous use for more than 300 years. The previous 24 months for this climate division had been the second driest such stretch on …
Continue reading ‘Where does this fit into our definition of “drought”?’ »