Western US Drought Intensifies - Snowpack Half Of March Averages

[hatrack]

RENO, Nev. - "From the brittle hillsides of Southern California to the drying fields of Idaho, from Montana to New Mexico, a relentless drought is worsening across most of the West, water supplies are dwindling and the threat of wildfires is rising.

"Most of the West is headed into six years of drought and some areas are looking at seven years of drought," said Rick Ochoa, weather program manager at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

Arizona is facing its worst drought on record. Two enormous reservoirs on the Colorado River are only half full. Some farmers in southern Idaho might not get any irrigation water this summer, and irrigators in western Nevada are threatening war with a country club that wants green grass for a national golf tournament.

The mountain snowpack, a crucial reservoir that in a good year holds water until it's needed, was half of the normal March level or less in many areas. "We had one of the warmest Marches on record ... and we didn't get any precipitation almost anywhere in the West," said Kelly Redmond, regional climatologist for the Desert Research Institute's Western Regional Climate Center in Reno. "So not only did we not add to our supply in March, which is usually a very healthy month, but the temperature was so warm that the melting started early."

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[mike_c]

1. umm, keeping golf courses green in the arid west...

...ought to be a felony, fer christ's sake. Nearly every drop of water used by humans is diverted or impounded at great cost to natural ecosystems. Using it frivolously ought to be a crime.