Western Reservoirs

Western Reservoirs

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
It is not a new calendar year yet but when it comes to the water cycle in the Western United States… “we talk about October 1 through September 30”. So USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey, what does this mean for reservoir levels in the West going into the important winter snowpack accumulation season where most of the water that fills reservoirs for spring and summer irrigation comes from? “We continue to see very low reservoir levels stretching from Oregon to the southern Rockies and all points south and west, and that does include Nevada where we see storage at this point in the season only about 15% of average.” Oregon has a storage of less than half of normal, New Mexico, at half of normal, Utah and Arizona, three quarters of average but as Rippey points out, “I guess the good news from all of this, as you head to the north and east we have seen abundant snow and more recently rainfall and that has topped reservoirs off very nicely in several states. As you move into Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, we actually see above average storage in the statewide reservoir systems.” And then you have Idaho, which is all over the place. I called NRCS hydrologist Phil Morrissey: “I would say near to above normal throughout Idaho with just these small pockets of way below normal.” Moving south and west of Idaho, things are extremely bleak in the huge agricultural state of California.
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