We are heading into a remarkable year on New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande. Here are some critical factors: The preliminary April 1 forecast from the NRCS is for 27 percent of median April – July runoff at Otowi, the key measurement gage for New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande. Current reservoir storage above us is basically …
Continue reading ‘Dancing with Deadpool on New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande’ »
My Utton Center pal Rin Tara and I are excited to launch “Water Matters,” our new podcast. Our first guest is Diane Agnew from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, who is charming and also breaks some news. Find it here, or, as they say on podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
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.
I was always frightened playing with Miles. Herbie Hancock, winner of the 2025 Polar Music Prize
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 …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading ‘Wrecking ball report: Weather balloon launches’ »
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 …
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 …
Continue reading ‘Colorado River Reservoir Storage in Mid-March: Where do we stand?’ »
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 …
Continue reading ‘The March 24-Month study and the myth of a “Compact Call”’ »