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Wet Winter Improves Colorado River Forecast; Big Cuts Still Coming

/in , , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journal by Colton Lochhead

An already wet winter in the mountains that feed the Colorado River got even better in March, providing a significant boost to the amount of water that forecasters expect to flow downstream into Lake Powell this summer.

The latest prediction from the National Weather Service’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center shows that the river will swell to 177 percent of its average volume during the all-important April-through-July period as the snow melts and flows into the river and its tributaries.

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Outflows Continue From Lake Oroville

/in , , , /by /Enterprise-Recordby Jake Hutchison

Since the beginning of December, Lake Oroville’s elevation has shot up by around 200 feet thanks to a constant stream of winter storms.

The lake reached a level that has prompted the California Department of Water Resources to let water out over the course of the past month in what the department claims is an effort to control flooding downstream.

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New Underground Basins Planned to Help Socal Store Water for Next Drought

/in , , /by /ABC 7 by Rob McMillan

With all the rain Southern California had this winter, local water agencies are working harder to capture and keep all that water for when the drier years return.

In San Bernardino, you might not notice the latest project because much of it will be underground.

The Santa Ana River flows from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Pacific Ocean in Orange County. While much of that water does end up in the ocean, plenty is stored in aquifers and reservoirs.

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7 Charts That Explain California’s Wild Winter of 2023

/in , , /by /The Mercury News by Scooty Nickerson, Harriet Blair Rowan & Paiching Wei

If there ever was a winter to check off squares on your Wild Weather Bingo card, 2023 was it.

More than 30 atmospheric river storms. 97 mph wind gusts. Destructive tidal surges. Bomb cyclones. Flash floods. Levee breaks. The Fujiwhara Effect. Snow piled more than 240 inches deep at Mammoth Pass. One of the rainiest days on record in San Francisco.

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Science Tackles the West’s Megadrought

/in , , /by /Yale Climate Connectionsby Tanya Petach & Emilio Mateo

Taps ran dry in Rio Verde on New Year’s Day.

Water had to be trucked in for household use in the affluent suburb outside Scottsdale, Arizona. The approximately 1,000 residents of the large, suburban stucco homes of Rio Verde were forced to take shorter showers and eat from paper plates.

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Tribe, US Officials Reach Deal to Save Colorado River Water

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Ken Ritter & Terry Tang

A Native American tribe in Arizona reached a deal Thursday with the U.S. government not to use some of its Colorado River water rights in return for $150 million and funding for a pipeline project.

The $233 million pact with the Gila River Indian Community, announced in Phoenix, was hailed as an example of the kind of cooperation needed to rescue a river crucial to a massive agricultural industry and essential to more than 40 million people in seven Western U.S. states and Mexico. Officials termed it “compensated conservation.”

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Feds Give Millions to Desert Water Projects, Warn a Wet Year is Not Enough

/in , , /by /Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

Water districts serving the California desert will receive nearly $18 million in federal infrastructure funds, officials announced this week, including for Imperial County’s first major reservoir and critical repairs to the aging All-American Canal.

The grants and loans come days before a likely federal announcement on possible cuts or other changes to Colorado River allocations through 2026 across seven Western states.

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Coldest Ocean Water Temperature in Decades Recorded Off San Diego County

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

The ocean temperature off Del Mar fell to 52.25 degrees this week, the lowest reading in San Diego County waters since UC San Diego began using a buoy system in the 1970s to monitor large areas of the U.S. coastline.

UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography said near-record low readings also were recorded this week at many other stations, including off Imperial Beach and Leucadia, where the temperature was 53.5 degrees on Wednesday.

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Welcome to the Board: Kyle Swanson, Padre Dam Municipal Water District

/in , , /by /Water News Network Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Kyle Swanson was seated on the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors on January 11, 2023, representing the Padre Dam Municipal Water District. Swanson serves on the Administrative and Finance, Legislation and Public Outreach and Water Conservation Garden JPA committees for the Water Authority.

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Lake Mead Water Levels Due to Hit Record Low Within Weeks

/in , , /by /Newsweekby Jess Thomson

Despite recent water levels exceeding expectations, Lake Mead is forecast to drop back down to a record low level by the end of the month.

As of Monday, Lake Mead’s water level was at 1,045.91 feet above sea level, almost 3 feet above the level of 1,043.06 feet predicted in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s “Most Probable 24-Month Study,” released at the start of March.

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