In parts of the Colorado River basin, Bolinger said climate change has caused conditions on the ground to bump up against the designated drought categories. It sucks up moisture from forests, backyard gardens and crop fields with greater intensity. The increase in temperatures means the atmosphere is thirstier. “The droughts that we are seeing are becoming that much more severe because of the temperature component, they’re warmer,” Bolinger said. 2002, 20 are the most intense dry periods on record for the basin. The Colorado River basin has experienced three D4 droughts in the last 20 years, including the current one. “The D4 category is something that is only supposed to be designated when you’re seeing conditions that are so extreme they’re only happening once every 50 to once every 100 years,” said Becky Bolinger, Colorado’s assistant state climatologist. For context, on the scale of “no drought” to “worst drought,” there’s no category that captures conditions more dry than exceptional. Three Exceptional Droughts In 20 YearsĮxceptional drought is a category that is supposed to capture the severity and frequency of an extended dry period.
The red and dark red represent extreme and exceptional drought, which combined have plagued the basin in 2002, 2018 and now in 2021.
When the river runs dry pdf series#
This time series graph shows the percent of the Upper Colorado River watershed in certain drought categories. It’s not quite as bad as 2002, she said, but it could easily get there. She compares the current drought conditions to 2018, another record-breaking hot and dry year just a couple years ago. “People are having to do things that you don’t necessarily see, but we have water being hauled for livestock, water being hauled in for wildlife,” Selover said. It survives,” she said.īut even some creosote is dying, unable to take the one-two punch of both the hottest and driest conditions on record last year in parts of Arizona. “Creosote is one I personally like to call it the cockroach of the vegetation world because pretty much nothing kills creosote. Even hardy desert plants, the ones well-adapted to water scarcity, have struggled. Record-breaking high temperatures dragged well into fall. “This is when we’re supposed to be gaining and accumulating water in the form of snowpack, and that’s not happening,” Selover said.Ĭonditions have been deteriorating across the river basin since the summer of 2020. If it’s dry there, that means many more problems as the water flows downstream. Nancy Selover, Arizona’s state climatologist, says the Upper Basin figure is concerning because that accounts for the river’s headwaters. Two Mexican states also receive Colorado River water.
The basin is made up of portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California. 84% of the Upper Colorado River watershed is currently experiencing extreme to exceptional drought conditions, the highest percentage since 2002. The Lower Basin fares worse, with 93% of the land area in those categories. This is the highest percentage of land in the river’s Upper Basin since 2002, which stands as the region’s driest year on record. 84% Of Upper Basin In Extreme To Exceptional Drought Invest in quality science journalism by making a donation to Science Friday.ĭonate 1.
We called several of them and asked for discrete numbers that capture the current state of the Colorado River basin. Understanding and explaining the depth of the dryness is up to climate scientists throughout the basin. This story was reported by Luke Runyon on KUNC.ĭry conditions are the worst they’ve been in almost 20 years across the Colorado River watershed, which acts as the drinking and irrigation water supply for 40 million people in the American Southwest.Īs the latest round of federal forecasts for the river’s flow shows, it’s plausible, maybe even likely, that the situation could get much worse this year. This segment is part of The State of Science, a series featuring science stories from public radio stations across the United States. Lake Mead is currently projected to be at its lowest level since filling within the next year, possibly triggering the first federal shortage declaration on the river that supplies water to 40 million across seven U.S.
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