How bad is 2018 snowpack in the southern Rocky Mountains, you ask?
Let me count the ways.
Currently, snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin, which supplies the vast majority of water for what is arguably the southwest鈥檚 most important river system, sits at . In 2002, the watershed鈥檚 driest year on record, there was more at this point in March than there is now.
Parts of California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico reported record dry conditions and high temperatures during the important snow accumulation period from November through January.
The measly snowfall translates to worsening drought conditions. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows more than 60 percent of the Colorado River Basin classified or worse, felt acutely in the Four Corners region, southern Utah and northern New Mexico.
Projections for the amount of water the Colorado River and its tributaries will dump into Lake Powell, the Upper Basin states鈥� main water bank account, . Without heavy spring snow in April and May, runoff to Powell will rival 2002鈥檚 trickle.
Rivers and small creeks in southwestern Colorado and eastern Utah are projected to flow of their average spring flow.
In Colorado鈥檚 mountains, it would take to pull the state鈥檚 measly supplies up to reasonable levels.
And as scientists at the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center put it in presentation: 鈥淐limatologically, time is running out,鈥� to make up the deficit.
So how does all this grim news likely translate into action?
In California, expect more calls for conservation, where some municipalities spend millions of dollars to incentivize homeowners to rip out their lawns or simply to convince them to embrace
In Utah, the state鈥檚 Republican governor Gary Herbert sent out a letter to interfaith leaders asking for additional prayers , saying a previous call for providential help brought rains to quench Utah鈥檚 damaging wildfires in 2012.
Facing an almost certain shortage on the Colorado River, water officials in landlocked Arizona are beginning to entertain , a technology once thought too expensive to make feasible on the coast let alone to pipe treated water inland.
And across the Colorado River Basin, conservation groups will continue the drum beat for the Drought Contingency Plan, or something similar. The multi-state agreement is an update to a set of 2007 guidelines already deemed obsolete in responding to the 18-year drought that鈥檚 upended conventional wisdom about what鈥檚 possible in southwestern weather.
But due to and the inability of some major water users to come to the negotiating table, the deal looks far from finished.
This story is part of a project covering the Colorado River, produced by KUNC and supported through a Walton Family Foundation grant. KUNC is solely responsible for .
