While much of the attention on the “ridiculously resilient ridge” has, rightly, focused on its effect on California’s drought, out here in the intermountain west we’ve been suffering too. Albuquerque is on the brink of its longest precip-free winter stretch on record (these records go back to 1920). And for the Colorado Basin?

What had been shaping up to a decent season, with enough snowstorms to keep the accumulation right in the “normal” range (where “normal” means in this case median), has flatlined since since early January.