Western States Megadrought intensifies - predictions for bad Fire Season and severe water shortages for Colorado (Cortez: landscaping, camp)

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by Vision67

Read "Cadillac Desert", by Marc Reisner, a book from about 1986.

It's the best history of the water parched West.

I love that book! Even though it came out more than 30 years ago that book is as compelling as if it were just written today. Reisner does an outstanding job of explaining the hows and whys of water use in the West. I've gone through it three times now and the read becomes more fascinating every time.

[Vision67]

Dry boat ramps, exposed rocks at Lake Powell reveal the cost of Colorado River drought

Boaters and anglers will find fewer options this year at Lake Powell as water managers scramble to protect critical resources.

https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/n...ll/9228093002/

"The river and its reservoir have experienced the Southwest’s driest multidecade “megadrought” in at least 1,200 years, according to a study led by UCLA researchers. Such aridification would likely take more than a single wet year to reverse, according to lead author Park Williams. That study follows a number of others in recent years showing that rising temperatures put more demand on the region’s water, worsening the effects of poor precipitation.

Second only to Lake Mead among American freshwater reservoirs, Lake Powell was brimming when the drought began around the turn of this century. Today it’s about a quarter full. The extent of last year’s plunge surprised park managers, and for about a month the businesses that clean, supply and launch houseboats for vacationers had nowhere to launch them."

Click on that link. Lots of good photos.

[Positiveone]

Interesting & eye opening thread.

Keep it going

[sammy87]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...cid=entnewsntp

I always take these stories with a grain of salt but Denver ranked #3 as cities facing a major water shortage in hte next 20 years.

[Colorado Rambler]

The Colorado Climate Center has just released its most recent update for wildland fire potential outlook. These updates come out three times per year and give the predictions for the coming four months. I was pleased to notice that Colorado is definitely now in the big leagues for wildfire in the American West. As I looked over all the maps and lists of data, it appeared to me that the only Western state which tops Colorado in wildfire related atrocities is California.

Colorado is now starting to predict wildfire potential beginning with the month of April. April? Didn't April used to be semi-infamous for the potential of big spring snowstorms to materialize and dump a few gazillion feet of snow up on all the mountain passes? I used to hate having to drive anywhere west of Denver on I-70 in April. I am already on a tight budget and it never seemed to fail that if I was headed back to Colorado Springs and was driving on I-70 anywhere between Glenwood Springs and Vail, the news would come blasting forth from my Explorer's radio of the inevitable jack-knifed truck and the inevitable closure of I-70 in both directions for at least 6 hours coming now to a location only a mile or less down the Interstate from where I was. Daaaamn!

The good news is that now impoverished Coloradans will have to spend fewer hours waiting shivering in their vehicles and drinking tepid coffee because they can't even afford the admittance fee of some resort town McDonalds type outfit, never mind the stratospheric cost of a room in Vail for the night.

The bad news is that now wildfire season not only starts in April but also continues on through December or maybe even March. Apparently wildfire "season" in Colorado is now a year round event - or more properly - an unending series of events. Check out the following maps:











You can check out this series of maps and much more at the Colorado Climate Center webpage. They've got data on everything!

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

......I was pleased to notice that Colorado is definitely now in the big leagues for wildfire......

Why would you be "pleased" with this?

Definitely a weird statement to make.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by LHS79

Why would you be "pleased" with this?

Definitely a weird statement to make.

I was being ironic.

[Mike from back east]

The removal of grass lawns in Las Vegas made the front page of the NY Times today, article here. NY Times is a paywall site but this open source site has the piece, but no pix.

Excerpt:

"It was a perfectly decent patch of lawn, several hundred square feet of grass in a condominium community on this city’s western edge. But Jaime Gonzalez, a worker with a local landscaping firm, had a job to do. Wrangling a heavy gas-powered sod cutter, Mr. Gonzalez sliced the turf away from the soil underneath, like peeling a potato. Two co-workers followed, gathering the strips for disposal. ... Under a state law passed last year that is the first of its kind in the nation, patches of grass like this, found along streets and at housing developments and commercial sites in and around Las Vegas, must be removed in favor of more desert-friendly landscaping."


Egads! A government that actually DOES something about a problem.

When we lived in COLO SPGS, at least ten years ago, the state passed a law that essentially nullified HOA rules that required a lot of lawn area. We adjusted our HOA bylaws to allow homeowners the leeway to reduce grassy areas and to put solar panels on their homes and property.

[orngkat]

So many bright green lawns already in my hood. I guess they water in the middle of the night. It is not hard to see the future if the drought continues - lawns will shrink or disappear and irrigation/lawn care businesses will need to find another line of work.

[bluescreen73]

I'm not trying to defend bluegrass, but the bottom line still remains - agriculture consumes vastly more water than lawns. Irrigating the desert in places like AZ and CA to grow produce is stupid.