I'm having a hard time believing my eyes with water data this year.
The Colorado River mainstem through Grand Junction was flowing at 54 cfs last night. Not a typo. 54 cfs.
Last year on this date it was flowing at 1,420cfs. Even in 2002, the driest year on record, it was at 690cfs on April 22.
Reclamation Acts to Protect Colorado River System During Historic Drought
USBR’s April “24 Month Study” projects Lake Powell may decline to below the minimum power pool level by August 2026 without major intervention.
#ColoradoRiver #LakePowell #power #water
www.usbr.gov/newsroom/new...
The feds are indicating they will "defend" 3,500 feet in Lake Powell to avoid dropping below minimum power pool, or what I call "de facto deadpool" since the water below that is not available for release. open.substack.com/pub/landdesk...
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"The solar sites are located on former lignite mine around the area of Amyntaio and Ptolemaida in northern Greece. According to a statement from PPC, they are capable of generating a combined 3.15 TWh annually, equivalent to nearly 6% of the country’s annual electricity consumption."
Good morning friends
We have until April 7th to comment on the Chaco Canyon area proposal - admin/regime plans to reopen drilling. Great backgrounder from @landdesk.bsky.social , includes a link to the blm project page or
open.substack.com/pub/landdesk...
The Colorado River Basin was 6.6F warmer in March 2026 than the previous record warmest March. March 2026 was also in last place (since 1940) for precipitation. Lake Powell and Lake Mead are in big trouble.
"[T]his war, like so many others, revolves around oil...& when oil is involved, the effects inevitably recoil on the U.S. in the form of higher prices, followed by yet more calls to drill public lands in the name of energy independence—or, in Trump-speak, "energy dominance."" @landdesk.bsky.social
Well, it's what everyone that sat out the last election b/c "Kamala reasons" voted for.
Uranium mining in the Chama Valley? Also: Public lands for affordable housing in Las Vegas; Images of the Big Fat Melt Off -- Jonathan P. Thompson (LandDesk.org) coyotegulch.blog/2026/04/01/u...
Water-guzzling copper mines stand to run up against hard limits as Arizona gets drier and hotter.
open.substack.com/pub/landdesk...
You name the Colorado town, and they probably set a new all-time March record high today.
High and low, east or west, north or south.
And we'll do it again tomorrow. And again on Saturday.
#COwx
Good stuff from @landdesk.bsky.social on why alfalfa is indeed a problem in the Colorado River Basin, but not actually the problem that needs to be resolved right now: www.landdesk.org/p/the-alfalf...
A dry dirt road leads toward a long, high mountain. There is some snow on the peaks and down steep gullies, but not much.
West side of the Twilights from lower Old Lime Creek Road. A visual to go with dismal snotel data. (And the heat dome hasn't arrived yet.)
Partly to make @landdesk.bsky.social sad.
Forecast to hit 104 degrees in Palm Springs on March 18 — which would break the daily record by nearly 10 degrees. Los Angeles could also reach triple digits in mid-March. www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026...
Map snapshot depicting the predicted relative anomalousness of 500mb GPH from the ECMWF ensemble over the Western U.S. in about a week from now. A large anomalous ridge, featuring a huge region of bright orange and red colors (depicting extremely high positive GPH anomalies) is centered right in the middle of the map.
Current indications are that late spring or even mid-summer-like (in some places) heat will arrive and persist for a fairly extended duration across a wide swath of the American West, centered on the Four Corners to Southern CA region. This will induce rapid melt of remaining snowpack.
Woah.
500 mb standardized departures for the Dec-Feb period. There's a +3.5 std. dev. contour over the 4-Corners region.
Graph showing the NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center's forecasts of April to July inflows to Lake Powell from 1991 to 2026, with colored lines showing how each season's forecast evolved from January through July. The latest Forecast, March 2026, is the lowest outlook for this time of year since at least 1991, at 36% of average inflows.
NOAA CBRFC's Mar 1st official forecast for Lake Powell April-July inflows is out, so here's an update of my "spaghetti" plot.
Despite better snowfall in February, the most-probable forecast remains bleak at 36% of average. Even an unusually wet Mar-May would only get us to ~65% of average.
And record-breaking daily-to-monthly high temperatures are occurring, in even more widespread fashion, yet again today. #CAwx #AZwx #NMwx #COwx
"We are wrong because we started the war" should be the anchor point for all coverage of what's happening and it's remarkable how quickly that tends to get obscured.
www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-countr...
A special issue from the team at @biographic.bsky.social! What has happened in the year since the Trump administration's wide ranging cuts to global conservation initiatives? A lot. And when you dig into the history, it's not entirely surprising: www.biographic.com/conservation...
Legacy mining mercury still pollutes Nevada rivers, raising concerns across Mountain West www.kunr.org/local-storie...
Federal officials now project that Lake Powell will "most probably" drop below power pool level — meaning Glen Canyon Dam will no longer be able to generate hydropower — before the end of this year: www.landdesk.org/p/the-colora... via @landdesk.bsky.social
The Navajo Nation wants to keep operating a coal mine for another 110 years, even though it has no idea who will buy all that coal. www.landdesk.org/p/four-corne... via @landdesk.bsky.social
More than 8,500 daily heat records have been tied or broken in the West this winter (2025-2026). "I have not seen a winter like this," said National Snow and Ice Data Center director Mark Serreze, who has been in #Colorado almost 40 years coyotegulch.blog/2026/02/12/m...
One group is now proposing “Abundance” on the Colorado River by building a “coordinated suite of desalination plants.”
“At some point, doesn’t it seem just a little bit easier, and a hell of a lot less expensive, to live within our means?” @landdesk.bsky.social
www.landdesk.org/p/abundance-...
Screenshot of TruthSocial post by President Trump complaining that Mayor Frey won't enforce federal immigration law, and calling it a "very serious violation of the Law."
In Printz v. United States, #SCOTUS held that the Constitution bars the federal government from forcing or otherwise compelling local or state governments to enforce federal law.
The liberal squish who wrote the majority opinion in that case? Justice Antonin Scalia:
tile.loc.gov/storage-serv...
