It’s been dry in Albuquerque
Since Dec. 1, we’ve had 0.16 inch of measurable precipitation, the driest on record (records go back to 1892). It’s a cherry pick. We did have a wet November, but that joy is long gone. It just feels crinkly out there.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
Quoting Herbie Hancock
I was always frightened playing with Miles. Herbie Hancock, winner of the 2025 Polar Music Prize
Ernie Pyle Beach
I’m back after a couple of months’ hiatus to working on Ribbons of Green, the new book Bob Berrens and I are finishing up for publication next year by UNM Press. The current task, putting together the final package of art, is a blast. There’s more than a little tedious technical work (sorting out copyright …
Stuff I’m reading
In sorting out the implications of how the federal chaos is playing out in real, on-the-ground effects on things I think about as a New Mexican and westerner, there are a a few independent writers who I am finding invaluable right now. There is a ton of D.C.-outward journalism being done right now about our …
Wrecking ball report: Weather balloon launches
Public goods, as my economist friends like to point out, are under provided. Today’s example from the federal wrecking ball is National Weather Service radiosonde launches. Here’s Daniel Cusick at E&E (the key bits aren’t behind their paywall): NOAA is “temporarily reducing” weather balloon flights from six National Weather Service offices in the Great Lakes …
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Wrecking ball report: blowing up 25 years of productive US-Mexico collaboration on the Colorado River
Via Annie Snider at Politico: The Trump administration escalated a water fight with Mexico on Thursday, saying it will cut off Colorado River water deliveries to the city of Tijuana. In a post on X, the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said it would deny Mexico’s request to deliver water to Tijuana through …
Colorado River Reservoir Storage in Mid-March: Where do we stand?
By Jack Schmidt (1), John Fleck (2), Kathryn Sorensen (3), Eric Kuhn (4), Katherine Tara (2) | March 21, 2025 1 Center for Colorado River Studies, Utah State University 2 Utton Transboundary Resources Center, University of New Mexico 3 Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University 4 (sort of) retired In Short: Since the …
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The March 24-Month study and the myth of a “Compact Call”
By Eric Kuhn The Bureau of Reclamation released its March 24-Month study last Friday and just like last month, the forecast is for big trouble in the Colorado River Basin. Under the “Most Probable” scenario, the ten-year cumulative flow at Lee Ferry will drop below 82.5 million acre-feet (the “tripwire”) by the end of Water …
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Space Ghost
It is an accident that my new bicycle is named after a 1960s cartoon superhero who fought supervillains in outer space with a sidekick named Blip. Blip was a monkey. I was on my own Saturday, no help from Blip, when my Space Ghost led me up a “trail” on the west side of the …
Wrecking ball report, snow survey edition
Those Rio Grande runoff forecasts we use to make critical water management decisions on New Mexico’s Rio Grande? NRCS…. From the Western States Water Council: The mass layoff of federal workers, including U.S. Department of Agriculture layoffs, has led to the loss of seven positions at the National Water and Climate Center (NWCC), cutting nearly …
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