California · U.S. · Jerome Powell · Wired
The Super El Niño Clinched’t Patch the West’s Water Crisis
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source + 3 references discovered via search. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
The Colorado River, which provides water for 40 million people across seven states, is at a crisis point.
Key facts
- On Thursday, Lake Powell was sitting at 3,519.4 feet, while Lake Mead was at 1,039.6 feet, their lowest levels on record
- Hausfather points out that during the last “strong” El Niño, in the winter of 2015-16, the river’s Upper Basin experienced a “normal” amount of snowfall
- The Colorado River, which provides water for 40 million people across seven states, is at a crisis point
- People have talked about the Colorado River crisis for decades—we’re now in it,” says John Berggren, a policy manager at environmental nonprofit Western Resource Advocates
Summary
The weather phenomenon, which is shaping up to be the strongest one of its kind in recorded history, may bring increased rain and snowfall to the southwestern United States this winter and spring. The Colorado River is fed primarily by snowmelt from the four states in the river’s Upper Basin (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming), which then supplies the Lower Basin states (California, Arizona, and Nevada). A winter of record-breaking warm temperatures across the West—made much more likely by climate change—and some of the lowest snowpack on record in mountain ranges in multiple states has led to an incredibly dry season for the Colorado. In a stroke of uniquely terrible timing, the river, whose water has for decades been over-allocated to thirsty industries like agriculture, is also facing a political crisis.