Colorado River basin reservoirs benefit from heavy snowpack

[TexasTowelie]

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Reservoirs around the Colorado River basin are in good shape after an exceptionally wet winter.

The largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are expected to be more than half full this year. They haven't been near capacity since 1999 when drought took hold of the region.

The worst levels of drought have now disappeared from much of the basin that takes in seven Western states. It's a dramatic turn from this time last year when parts of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California were extremely or exceptionally dry.

Nevada and Wyoming also rely on water from the Colorado River.

Read more: https://trib.com/outdoors/colorado-river-basin-reservoirs-benefit-from-heavy-snowpack/article_82689b6c-33f6-5f5a-8dd0-ccc563360535.html
(Casper Star Tribune)

[The Polack MSgt]

1. I was just working a gig in a high desert valley in the Sierra Nevadas

About a hundred miles North west of Lake Tahoe.

When I was last there (3 years ago, same time of year) it was bone dry and the Honey Lake Basin was a dry alkali flat with a few hundred acres of mud in the center.

There was no snow visible even on the highest peaks.

This year Honey Lake had water all the way to the "Shoreline", the grass was growing everywhere and all but the lowest peaks were white.

It looked like a different place

[mr_lebowski]

2. Well, a one year respite, after a 20 year-ish drought, happy days are here again!

We can all safely assume this wasn't a one-time thing, and go back to profligate water use down here in Phoenix. Hooray!

Let's build, build, build!!! And lots of new farms, hopefully owned by foreigners, who ship everything back home!

[The Polack MSgt]

3. Here in Southern Illinois, It took 3 wettter than usual years to re-establish -

the water table after a 9 year drought.

Since then we've had 1 dry and 2 REALLY wet years and the swamps are full, the rivers high and the soil is saturated.

No farms have begun plowing yet because it is too wet but the winter wheat is already a foot tall - It's a mixed bag...

So my point is that localized plusses or minuses in precipitation or average temps are not the things that we need to focus on.

What we need to keep at the center of our attention, is the fact that there is no longer a way to tell how long a pattern will hold, or if any 2 or 3 year trend is actually a pattern at all.

Everything is in flux