The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land — Luna Leopold
New 2023 Four Panel Figure for the #ColoradoRiver Basin — Brad Udall #COriver #aridification
New plot using the nClimGrid data, which is a better source than PRISM for long-term trends. Of course, the combined reservoir contents increase from last year, but the increase is less than 2011 and looks puny compared to the ‘hole’ in the reservoirs. The blue Loess lines subtly change. Last year those lines ended pointing downwards. This year they end flat-ish. 2023 temps were still above the 20th century average, although close. Another interesting aspect is that the 20C Mean and 21C Mean lines on the individual plots really don’t change much. Finally, the 2023 Natural Flows are almost exactly equal to 2019. (17.678 maf vs 17.672 maf). For all the hoopla about how this was record-setting year, the fact is that this year was significantly less than 2011 (20.159 maf) and no different than 2019.
Also from Brad in email:
“You asked about Social Media. I’m disgusted with Elon and have been completely quiet on Twitter. It is only a matter of time before I delete my account for good. I have both BlueSky and Threads accounts but both have only about 10 followers as I have not posted. Mostly the world gets me down these days and I have a hard time thinking Social Media is a force for the good. Feel free to post this.”
