Drought Archives

Record Low Lake Powell and Bad 2021 Drought Forecast Sets Stage For Water Cuts

January 25, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /The Colorado Sunby Jason Blevins

The dry 2020 and the lack of snow this season has water managers in seven states preparing for the first time for cutbacks outlined in drought contingency plans drafted two years ago. A sobering forecast released this week by the Bureau of Reclamation shows the federally owned Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the nation’s two largest reservoirs and critical storage for Colorado River water and its 40 million users — dipping near-record-low levels.

Full Story

Why US Investors Are Now Betting On Water

January 21, 2021/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /DW.com (Germany)

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, investors are now able to speculate on water prices. This practice, meant to help secure supplies for cities and farmers, has drawn criticism, as Sabrina Kessler reports from New York.

Full Story

Lower Water Levels Impacting Grebes’ Mating Habits at Lake Hodges

January 21, 2021/in Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /CBS 8 (San Diego)by Shawn Styles

San Diego has over 500 different species of bird that migrate though or live here. One of the more unusual is Grebes. “[They are] white birds with a black neck and head and very red eyes,” said Brian Caldwell. Caldwell is a naturalist that guides tours at Lake Hodges and said water level changes nesting.

Full Story

Opinion: After COVID-19, Drought Threat Still Looms

January 20, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /CalMattersby Dan Walters

California is enveloped in balmy weather that’s more like spring than mid-winter — and that’s not a good thing. We have seen only scant rain and snow this winter, indicating that the state may be experiencing one of its periodic droughts and adding another layer of crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession. The all-important Sierra snowpack, California’s primary source of water, is scarcely half of what is deemed a normal depth.

Full Story

Opinion: Lasting Colorado River Solutions Come from Main Street, Not Wall Street

January 19, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /The Daily Sentinel (Colorado)by Dan Keppen, Scott Yates, Taylor Hawes

Sensational headlines, like those speculating that Wall Street will make billions off the Colorado River or that West Slope farmers should pack it in now, certainly attracts readers. Unfortunately, these articles wholly fail to convey the reality of the water challenges facing the Colorado River Basin.

As representatives of irrigated agriculture and conservation organizations, we deal with these issues every day. Often times, we do so through working partnerships with each other. Increasingly, we find these relationships are necessary to ensure that farms and ranches thrive and that rivers continue to support fish, wildlife, and recreation.

Full Story

Sonoma County Flirts With Drought as Reservoirs Recede in Water-Poor Winter

January 19, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /The Press Democratby Guy Kovner

About a mile of bare, cracked earth now lies like a desertscape between the boat ramp at the north end of Lake Mendocino and the water’s edge of a diminished reservoir that helps provide water for 600,000 Sonoma and Marin County residents.

The human-made lake near Ukiah is about 30 feet lower than it was at this time last year, and Nick Malasavage, an Army Corps of Engineers official who oversees operations at the reservoir, said the scene is “pretty jarring.”

Full Story

The Ongoing Collapse of the World’s Aquifers

January 19, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /Wiredby Matt Simon

As California’s economy skyrocketed during the 20th century, its land headed in the opposite direction. A booming agricultural industry in the state’s San Joaquin Valley, combined with punishing droughts, led to the over-extraction of water from aquifers. Like huge, empty water bottles, the aquifers crumpled, a phenomenon geologists call subsidence. By 1970, the land had sunk as much as 28 feet in the valley, with less-than-ideal consequences for the humans and infrastructure above the aquifers.

Full Story

How Low Will They Go? Local Lakes Shrinking

January 19, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Kimberlyn Velasquez /Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.)

Water supplies in El Dorado County lakes are dropping. In a report to the El Dorado Irrigation District Board of Directors Monday Operations Director Dan Corcoran said the water agency expects to have adequate water supplies for 2021 but continues to be diligent regarding signs of a possible multiyear rainfall shortage.

Full Story

A “Forever” Drought Takes Shape in the West

January 14, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Axiosby Jennifer A. Kingson

The Southwest U.S. is mired in an ever-worsening drought, one that has left deer starving in Hawaii, turned parts of the Rio Grande into a wading pool, and set a record in Colorado for the most days of “exceptional drought.”

Full Story

Sustainable Gardeners, Get Into Your Climate Zone

January 14, 2021/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /Water News Network

People around the world know San Diego for its beautiful, sunny, and mild weather. San Diego residents know our daily weather has more variety than visitors might imagine.

Climate is defined as the average weather conditions in an area over a long period, generally 30 years or more. German climate scientist Wladimir Koppen first divided the world’s climate into six regions in the early 1900s.

Full Story

Posts