Report: 2 Articles on California water problems

KUNCThe Colorado River Basin’s Worsening Dryness In Five Numbers. Dry 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. As 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. Understanding and explaining the depth of the dryness is up to climate scientists throughout the basin. We called several of them and asked for discrete numbers that capture the current state of the Colorado River basin.

CAPRadio: California Needs More Storms, Groundwater To Avoid Prolonged Drought, Experts Say. Northern California was walloped at the end of January by the winter’s first big storm, which poured heavy rain and loads of snow across the region. That was great for the snowpack in the Sierra, which supplies around a third of California’s water needs. The most recent survey showed the snowpack is 70% of normal for this time of year statewide, a big increase from the 52% a month ago. But that storm was not nearly enough to get the state out of drought trouble, according to Sean de Guzman with the California Department of Water Resources.

 

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