Four months ago, the outlook for the Colorado River was so dire that federal projections showed imminent risks of reservoirs dropping to dangerously low levels.
But after this winter’s major storms, the river’s depleted reservoirs are set to rise substantially with runoff from the largest snowpack in the watershed since 1997.
In a sense, the record string of storms that hit California created two lakes — one real and one hypothetical.
The deluges re-established Tulare Lake, once the largest lake west of the Mississippi River that was drained long ago for agriculture and municipal water demands.
After a three-year drought in California and throughout the Southwest, many states throughout the West are measuring record snowpack conditions at NRCS SNOTEL stations and snow courses. Utah especially has seen a benchmark year for snowfall levels throughout the state.
In California, the statewide snowpack (April 5) was 243% of normal, with the Northern Sierra at 198%, Central Sierra at 242%, and Southern Sierra at 302%. The California Department of Water Resources reported that the 2022-23 season will go down as one of the largest snowpacks on record in California.
California's snowpack is one of the biggest ever. DWR is reaching new heights to capture data to inform water supply forecasting and help local agencies plan for the spring snowmelt season.
–#california #water #cawater #snow pic.twitter.com/M2dbcy3Ej0— CA – DWR (@CA_DWR) April 5, 2023
In Nevada and Utah, current SWE percentages of median for select basins are as follows: Central Lahontan 273%, Central Nevada Desert Basins 267%, Great Salt Lake 224%, Lower Green 202%, Upper Colorado-Dolores 207%, and Upper Colorado-Dirty Devil 219%, according to the NRCS SNOTEL network.
“A significant Western warming trend during the weekend and early next week will increase streamflow due to melting snow. On April 10-11, temperatures should briefly top 95°F in lower elevations of the Desert Southwest. Periods of Northwestern precipitation will add to the runoff potential in that region. Meanwhile, little or no precipitation will fall during the next 5 days across a vast swath of the country, including southern California and the Plains, Southwest, Midwest, and Northeast.
The #Sierra snowpack is near its climatological peak, and looking at today's numbers from @CA_DWR, the statewide percent of avg sits at 243% for April 5. The southern Sierra is an "eye-popping" 302% of avg. Track the melt into area rivers at https://t.co/Vab3udGkyz #CAwater #CAwx pic.twitter.com/k7FKQP92kl
— NWS California-Nevada RFC (@NWSCNRFC) April 5, 2023
Farther south, however, 5-day rainfall could total 1 to 3 inches or more from eastern Texas to the Carolinas, with the bulk of the rain falling by Saturday. The NWS 6- to 10-day outlook for April 11 – 15 calls for the likelihood of below-normal temperatures in California, the Great Basin, and the Northwest, while warmerthan-normal weather will dominate the central and eastern U.S. Meanwhile, above-normal precipitation from the Rockies into the Plains and upper Midwest should contrast with drier-than-normal conditions in the East (excluding Florida’s peninsula) and much of California.”
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.”
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.
As early as midnight, scores of Mexicali residents with U.S. citizenship or legal status line up at the port of entry. They cross into Calexico, walking past darkened storefronts, and gather near a 24-hour donut shop. Before dawn, they board buses for fields across the Imperial Valley.
Every year, some 15,000 people legally cross the border to work on farms in the region. In the winter, they join local residents in harvesting as much as 90% of the nation’s vegetables.
If passed, a bill in the Nevada Legislature would urge the United States Bureau of Reclamation to consider more measures to protect and manage the Colorado River.
SJR 3 reads that the Colorado River is the most vital water source in Nevada, and much of the western states, including 22 Native American tribes and Mexico.
Ninety percent of Southern Nevada’s water supply comes from the Colorado River via Lake Mead, which is still facing unprecedented drought and aridification.
California and Colorado are both receiving impressive amounts of snow.
That’s good for us because snow in the Rocky Mountains ultimately ends up in the Colorado River, which leads to Lake Mead.
That snow is hitting places like the Copper Mountain Ski Resort, which sits 9,700 feet up in Frisco, Colorado. That’s about an hour and a half west of Denver.
Spring is arriving sooner and warming up faster than ever before, new research shows. And that means more than just early wildflower blooms across Arizona.
A longer, warmer spring can stress water supplies in the West. The longer spring season may also produce ripple effects on agriculture as water demand will likely increase, and growing seasons may shift.
