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Upper Colorado River States Add Muscle as Decisions Loom on the Shrinking River’s Future

/in , , /by /Western Water (Water Education Foundation)by Nick Cahill

The states of the Lower Colorado River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West. California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even during dry years. But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river whose average flows have already dropped 20% over the last century.

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Westlands Receives $1.5mil for Desalination Pilot Program

/in , /by /The Sunby Daniel Gligich

Westlands Water District received a state grant to support desalination and on-farm recycling.

Westlands, which serves western Fresno and Kings Counties, views the grant as strengthening its ability to improve the water supply for local communities and farmers.

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Wildflowers Are Popping Up Across the Western United States

/in , /by /NPR

A wet winter in parts of California and Arizona means an epic wildflower season. In some areas the so-called “superbloom” can be seen from space.

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A Wet California Boosts Water Allocations to 100% for First Time in Nearly 20 Years

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Grace Toohey

For the first time since 2006, California officials have increased allocations from the vital State Water Project to 100% of requested supplies, as reservoirs across the state are nearing capacity and an epic snowpack has yet to melt.

An unusually wet winter brought unprecedented snowfall and a succession of heavy rainstorms, pulling much of the state out of a punishing years-long drought and transforming the year’s water outlook.

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When Will California Have Its Next Drought? JPL May Soon Offer a Water Crystal Ball

/in , , /by /NBC Los Angelesby Helen Jeong and Belen De Leon

A new satellite by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will soon provide more precise — and vital — data on how much water is available on Earth’s surface, allowing better forecasts for extreme weather conditions such as droughts and floods, and helping water resources managers and farmers to get a better picture of their water budget.

The international Surface Water and Ocean Topography or SWOT mission was launched in December 2022 from Vandenberg Space Force Base atop a Falcon 9 rocket.

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How America’s Fastest Growing City is Trying to Secure Its Water Future

/in , , /by /ABC Newsby Patrick Linehan

Rob Ford was watering his hay last October at his small Washington County, Utah, ranch when he realized the flow was weaker than usual. He called the irrigation manager who monitors the water levels.

“The water is really weak,” Ford said he told the irrigation manager. “Is that about what we are expecting today?”

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Opinion: Climate Change is Here. It’s Time Californians Stopped Clinging to the Past

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

So says Matthew Broderick in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and he might as well be talking about California these days. As the planet continues to heat up, the state’s landscapes, watersheds and weather are shifting so fast it can be difficult to keep track.

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Late-Season Storm Brings More Snow to the Sierra Nevada

/in , , /by /AP News

The winter that wouldn’t quit showed up again in the Sierra Nevada region of California and Nevada on Tuesday.

The fast-moving, blustery storm wasn’t expected to last long, but it was enough to require chain controls on some trans-Sierra highways and add to staggering snowfall totals left by an exceptional series of winter storms.

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Striking Before-and-After Satellite Photos Show the Great California Snowmelt Underway

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Terry Castleman

As California’s wet winter has given way to warmer spring weather, the state’s record snowpack has begun to melt.

Though the accumulated snow still measures 249% of normal as of April 18, new satellite photos show that the white blankets enveloping mountains across the state have started to recede.

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Opinion: Imperial Valley Nears Day of Reckoning for Use of Distressed Colorado River

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Dan Walters

When white settlers forayed into what came to be known as the Imperial Valley at the dawn of the 20th century, they found a barren desert in California’s southeastern corner, unpopulated except for a few members of the Kamia clan of the Kumeyaay tribe.

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