Day: January 30, 2026

#Drought news January 30, 2026: Scattered deterioration introduced in parts of western #Colorado (to D1 or D2).

Click on a thumbnail graphic to view a gallery of drought data from the US Drought Monitor website:

US Drought Monitor map January 27, 2026.
High Plains Drought Monitor map January 27, 2026.
West Drought Monitor map January 27, 2026.
Colorado Drought Monitor map January 27, 2026.

Click the link to go to the US Drought Monitor website. Here’s an excerpt:

This Week’s Drought Summary

Most precipitation across the contiguous United States fell in association with a large, impactful storm system that affected a broad area from the southernmost Rockies and the southern Plains eastward across a large part of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, the Southeast, and the Eastern Seaboard. Winter storm warnings at one point covered about one million square miles. Heavy to excessive amounts of snow, sleet, and freezing rain were widespread throughout the region. Numerous locations across Pennsylvania, New York, and New England recorded 1 to 2 feet of snow or snow and sleet. Elsewhere, totals reached as high as 17 inches in Ohio and West Virginia; 15 inches in Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana; and 1 foot in Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. Intense sleet fell farther south, overlapping the southern sections of the heavy snow area. Sleet totals topped out near 7 inches in Arkansas, Louisiana, and North Carolina; near or slightly over 6 inches fell on scattered sites across Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Maryland; and localized amounts reached 4 inches in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Virginia. Freezing rain fell in abundance across portions of the South, and in some areas that experienced a changeover from sleet. States with at least one site reporting 1 inch thick ice accumulation included Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina while peak amounts of 0.7 to 0.8 inch were reported in Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia. Widespread power outages and tree damage was reported in many locations that received heavy freezing rain. Liquid-equivalent precipitation totals associated with this system exceeded an inch in parts of the southernmost Rockies, in a band from eastern Texas and western Arkansas eastward through Alabama, most of Tennessee and Kentucky, the central and northern Virginias, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and in scattered locations across adjacent areas, including the Northeast. Scattered areas across the southern tier of the Lower-48 recorded over 3 inches of precipitation, including central Texas, southern Louisiana and adjacent Texas, and a fairly solid band from northeastern Texas through northern Louisiana, northern Mississippi, and northwestern Alabama. Up to 10 inches fell on one patch in southwestern Louisiana, and localized amounts exceeded 4 inches in northern Mississippi and a few other scattered areas.

However, despite the extensive coverage of impactful precipitation, the storm has not yet brought about broad areas of drought relief. Improvements were made where some of the heaviest liquid-equivalent precipitation fell, including a few places where it fell in frozen form. However, Arctic air has settled into the eastern states in the wake of the storm, and in many if not most areas, the water that could eventually help ease drought conditions was locked up in accumulated frozen precipitation, and can’t provide tangible improvements to drought impacts until it has melted. In the South, this may be only a matter of a few days, and relief was depicted more quickly there than farther north, especially in the northern tier of the East where temperatures may remain below freezing for extended periods of time.

Along the northwestern and southeastern edges of the winter storm, light to moderate precipitation was recorded, with totals ranging from a few tenths to nearly an inch over the western half of Texas and from much of Oklahoma northeastward through most of Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and the upper reaches of the Northeast. Similar amounts were noted to the south of the heaviest precipitation, generally across portions of the Carolinas, southeastern Georgia, Florida, and the immediate central Gulf Coast.

In other parts of the Lower-48, very little if any precipitation was recorded. The single widespread and extremely impactful winter storm was responsible for almost all of the precipitation observed this week…

High Plains

Most of the High Plains Region was dry last week, with an amounts of a few tenths to approaching one inch fell on much of central and eastern Kansas and on scattered higher elevations in Colorado and Wyoming. Otherwise, little or nothing fell. The Region – outside the higher elevations – is climatologically cold and dry, so precipitation deficits increase very slowly, and demand is lower this time of year. Dryness and drought was essentially unchanged in most of the High Plains Region, with some scattered deterioration introduced in parts of western Colorado (to D1 or D2). Drought intensification was also introduced around the Black Hills and adjacent western South Dakota (to D0 or D1), where snowpack is deficient and slowly declining…

Colorado Drought Monitor one week change map ending January 27, 2026.

West

The southern fringe of the West Region was impacted by the western edge of the winter storm, resulting in over 1.5 inches of precipitation across a few patches from southeastern Arizona across southern New Mexico. Amounts exceeded 3 inches in parts of south-central New Mexico north of the Texas Big Bend. The precipitation fell mostly in liquid form in southeastern Arizona, and was sufficient to bring improvements into that area. Farther east, although amounts were a little heavier, the precipitation was primarily in frozen form, and remained unmelted. Therefore, only a few targeted improvements were introduced in a few small areas reporting the highest precipitation amounts (over 3 inches). Elsewhere, most of the Region received no measurable precipitation, with just a few tenths falling on some of the higher elevations of the Rockies. Still, there was no tangible deterioration across the Region during the dry week, in part because it followed a few weeks of relatively abundant precipitation. As a result, the Drought Monitor depiction was unchanged outside parts of the southern fringes of Arizona and New Mexico…

South

One to several inches of precipitation was widespread across most of Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, central and southern Arkansas, the eastern Texas. Improvements were introduced in a number of areas, generally the areas that received the most precipitation, where much of the precipitation fell in liquid form, or where drought was already waning. To wit, some relatively broad improvements were introduced in Tennessee and to a lesser extent Mississippi. Farther west, where subnormal precipitation dates back at least several months, improvements were more targeted to the areas receiving the heaviest precipitation, especially from central Louisiana northward where precipitation remained unmelted. Despite the precipitation accompanying the massive winter storm, Many areas in a band from northern Arkansas to the Louisiana Gulf Coast recorded 8 to 10 inches less than normal precipitation over the past 90 days, with a few spots in northeastern Arkansas and east-central Louisiana recording deficits approaching 12 inches during this period. Farther west, moderate to heavy precipitation was fairly widespread in eastern Texas, with lesser amounts toward the central part of the state. Southeastern Oklahoma reported amounts similar to eastern Texas (1.5 to locally 3.0 inches), but most areas farther northwest recorded less than an inch. With much of the precipitation remaining locked up in frozen form, only a few surgical improvements were introduced in the areas with the most extreme totals in eastern Texas. A few inches of liquid-equivalent precipitation also fell farther southwest over south-central Texas. Temperatures were above freezing there at the end of the period, and the environment was beginning to respond to the moisture infusion, so somewhat more aggressive improvements were introduced there…

US Drought Monitor one week change map ending January 27, 2026.

Upper #ColoradoRiver Commissioner Becky Mitchell’s prepared remarks “This is the river we actually live with” for the #Colorado Water Congress Annual Convention January 28, 2026 #COriver #aridification #cwcac2026

Rebecca Mitchell, John Entsminger, Estevan Lopez, Gene Shawcroft, JB Hamby, Tom Buschatzke at the Getches-Wilkinson Center/Water and Tribes Initiative Conference June 6, 2024. Photo credit: Rebecca Mitchell

Click the link to read the remarks on the Coyote Gulch website. Thanks to Michael Elizabeth Sakas for sending them in email:

January 28, 2026

Fellow Coloradans,

First I want to thank Christine Arbogast and the Colorado Water Congress for allowing me to speak today. I will be brief as Amy Ostdiek will be on a panel tomorrow giving a bit more detail of the status of the negotiations. I will be heading to Washington DC with my fellow commissioners to have more discussions.

Let’s start with a truth that somehow still feels radical:

The Colorado River is not broken.

We are.

Udall/Overpeck 4-panel Figure Colorado River temperature/precipitation/natural flows with trend. Lake Mead and Lake Powell storage. Updated through Water Year 2025. Note the tiny points on the annual data so that you can flyspeck the individual years. Credit: Brad Udall

The river is doing exactly what rivers do when you take too much from them for too long. It is responding to reality. And right now, for many, reality is inconvenient.

For more than a century, we built a system of optimism and entitlement. We planned for abundance, labeled it “normal,” and wrote it into law. When the water showed up, we spent it. When it didn’t, we blamed the weather, climate change, or each other—anything except the simple math.

The river never signed those agreements. And it is not interested in our love story with the past.

Lake Powell and Lake Mead were supposed to protect the system. Instead, we turned them into shock absorbers for delay. We wanted them to be savings accounts, when in reality we treated them like credit cards—use now, pay later.

Well, interest has accrued and the bill has arrived. Both reservoirs are in a treacherous situation.

The Colorado River fills Glen Canyon, forming Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir. The reservoir could drop to a new record low in 2026 if conditions remain dry in the Southwestern watershed. (Alexander Heilner/The Water Desk with aerial support from LightHawk)

Lake Powell was never meant to be drained so that hard decisions could be postponed downstream. It was designed to stabilize the system, to smooth out highs and lows; not to prop up demand that no longer matches supply. Year after year, Powell has been drawn down to protect uses elsewhere—even as inflows decline and the margin for error disappears.

Hoover Dam at low water. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

Lake Mead tells the same story from the other end. Despite conservation programs, pilot projects, and voluntary agreements, Mead keeps dropping. Not because we lack creativity—but because we are still taking more water out of the system than the river is putting in.

Reservoirs don’t lie.They are the silent accountants of what we actually do, not what we say we’re doing.

Here in Colorado, when the river runs low, the impacts are immediate. We don’t have a giant reservoir upstream to hide behind. Shortages here are hydrologic. They are real. Farmers fallow fields. Municipalities restrict use. Communities adapt—not next year, not after another study or more modeling, but now. These impacts should be the indicator of the level of action that is needed across the entire Basin.

That lived experience matters—especially as we head into a post-2026 world.

Post-2026 is not just another chapter in the Law of the River, it is a reckoning.

The Interim Guidelines were written for a different river–-a river of the past. The drought contingency plans were emergency patches—not as a permanent fix but to buy time at a cost of more than a billion dollars until the next deal. We all know now those bandaids don’t fix holes in reservoirs. And the idea that we can simply extend these frameworks or merely modify them —while Powell and Mead hover near critical elevations—is not leadership. It’s hope, not based on reality or experience, but avoidance.

In the post-2026 world, operations must be supply-based. Not demand-based. Not entitlement -justified. And not built on the hope that the next big year will save us. The harm will be irreversible because the Colorado River is NOT TO BIG TO FAIL.

Map of the Colorado River drainage basin, created using USGS data. By Shannon1 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

Right now, the Basin States have a chance to prevent further irreversible damage and try to avoid bankruptcy. But that will only be possible if we all work together and see the stark reality of our present circumstances with clear eyes. We must build a framework that recognizes and adapts to the math problem–supplies that regularly give us all less than our full rights and entitlements, that improves efficiencies for water intensive sectors, allows us flexibilities to help our neighbors when we can, and requires full transparency for measurement, monitoring, and accounting across the Colorado River System to build trust between us. Trust is difficult to rebuild when some don’t acknowledge or adhere to the agreements already made.

That means releases from Lake Powell must reflect actual inflows, not political pressure.

It means protecting critical elevations is not optional.

And it means Lake Mead cannot continue to serve as a pressure valve for overuse.

We cannot manage scarcity with delay.

We cannot store our way out of imbalance with water that isn’t there-that may never be there.

And we cannot negotiate with the simple arithmetic, no matter how many times we tell ourselves it will be different this time.

As sparks fly in the interstate negotiations, it is important to keep these realities in mind despite the rhetoric that attempts to distract.

Colorado is often told to “come to the table,” as if we’ve been absent. But we’ve been here the entire time—bringing hydrology, realism, and a simple message: if reductions aren’t real, reservoirs won’t recover. It is telling that what some refer to as an extreme negotiating position is based solely on the simple facts of hydrology—using more than the supply will bankruptthe entire system for everyone. How does the saying go? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

We are not asking for special treatment. We are not asking for a pass on doing our part to help save the system from collapse. We are asking for honesty. For reductions from both basins that are measurable, enforceable, and in proportion to use—not in proportion to who can avoid the truth the longest.

Because if we don’t choose how to live within the river’s limits, the river will choose for us. And it will not be gentle.

This is not a call for conflict.

It’s a call to face the reality of this unprecedented situation and come together to manage the River with wise and mature decision-making.

Lake Powell and Lake Mead are no longer warnings. They are verdicts. They are telling us—clearly and without spin—that the era of surplus, overuse, of clever deals is over.

The question facing all of us post-2026 is simple:

Do we align the rules with the river we actually have—or keep clinging to a past that no longer exists?

So as I head East I take you with me, because I know you all are doing the real work back on the home front. This year’s current hydrology demands it. I know Coloradans will be prepared, like they always have been. Fields will be fallowed, municipalities will be preparing to manage within their resources, deals will be made to protect fish and flows. Junior priority water users know that years like this one will call for collaboration and innovation, senior priority water users will work within the law and with those that are suffering, you will help each other pay the bill from Mother Nature because you know we all rise and fall together.

You all are here doing the real and hard work, and I will take that with me.Coloradans should be proud that we are choosing reality over fantasy, science over slogans, and responsibility over delay.

That is not weakness.

That’s leadership.

Colorado River “Beginnings”. Photo: Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism

Fiery speeches and calls for compromise: What #ColoradoRiver negotiators are saying on eve of DC summit — Scott Franz (KUNC.org) #COriver #aridification #cwcac2026

Water policymakers from (left to right) Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming speak on a panel at the Colorado River Water Users Association conference in Las Vegas on December 5, 2024. State leaders are deeply divided on how to share the shrinking water supply, and made little progress to bridge that divide at the annual meetings. Photo credit: Alex Hager/KUNC

Click the link to read the article on the KUNC website (Scott Franz):

January 29, 2026

This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC in Colorado and supported by the Walton Family Foundation. KUNC is solely responsible for its editorial coverage.

Governors in the Colorado River basin and their negotiators are meeting with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in Washington on Friday to try and break a yearslong impasse among states over how to share the dwindling waterway.

On the eve of the high-stakes summit, negotiators from both the upper and lower river basins are not sounding confident they can reach an agreement before a fast-approaching Feb. 14 deadline.

“It depends on the day that you ask me,” Colorado’s negotiator, Becky Mitchell, said Tuesday when asked by KUNC News if she thinks the states are heading toward a court battle. “But I will tell you the level of commitment that we have, both within Colorado and the upper basin, is strong to try to find some way to make a deal. There’s some things that we can’t give on.”

Negotiators are currently working against the backdrop of record low-snowpack across much of the West and worsening forecasts for the Colorado River’s water supply. 

Mitchell said negotiators are continuing to talk at least twice each week.

But leaders from the upper and lower basin states say they still have sticking points.

They continue to differ on how water cuts should be handled and how releases from Lake Powell should be managed during dry years.

“Some in the lower basin wanted some sort of guaranteed supply, irrespective of hydrologic conditions,” Mitchell said. “And I think asking people to guarantee something that cannot be guaranteed is a recipe that cannot get to success.”

The lower basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada are proposing to cut 1.5 million acre feet of their water use. They’re also asking for water restrictions to be mandatory and shared among all seven states. 

Negotiators from the different basins spoke at public events on Wednesday to set the stage for the summit in Washington.

“It’s tough to say I’m looking forward to it, because that would be a lie,” Mitchell told a large crowd Wednesday at a water conference in Aurora.

Her speech was fiery at times.

Colorado River negotiator Becky Mitchell speaks to the Colorado Water Congress convention in Aurora on Jan. 28, 2026. Scott Franz/KUNC

“Operations must be supply based, not demand based, not entitlement justified, and not built on a hope that the next big year will save us,” she said. “That harm will be irreversible, because the Colorado River is not too big to fail.”

As Mitchell was addressing the water conference in a hotel ballroom, California’s water negotiator, J.B. Hamby, was talking to roughly 600 people on a webinar about his take on the state of negotiations.

He largely focused on his desire to still find a compromise among the seven states in the river basin.

“It’s better to be able to work something out across the negotiating table, to do something that makes sense and protects our users and people and agriculture in our state, and as a result of that, getting a seven-state agreement that protects those interests,” he said.

Hamby said the federal government is “leaning in” and becoming more involved in the negotiations by offering potential options.

Hamby called the feds’ ideas helpful.

“Continued back and forth between the basins haven’t really been moving the ball forward,” he said. “The administrations…have this important role in sometimes knocking heads together, sometimes encouraging consensus, and having diplomatic discussions between the states to be able to move conversations forward.”

He pointed to Herbert Hoover’s role in 1922 as then Commerce Secretary to broker a deal among states in the river basin over how to share water. 

“It’s going to take everyone chipping in and making the necessary (water) reductions to balance the supply with the demand we have moving forward,” Hamby said.

Members of the Colorado River Commission, in Santa Fe in 1922, after signing the Colorado River Compact. From left, W. S. Norviel (Arizona), Delph E. Carpenter (Colorado), Herbert Hoover (Secretary of Commerce and Chairman of Commission), R. E. Caldwell (Utah), Clarence C. Stetson (Executive Secretary of Commission), Stephen B. Davis, Jr. (New Mexico), Frank C. Emerson (Wyoming), W. F. McClure (California), and James G. Scrugham (Nevada) CREDIT: COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY WATER RESOURCES ARCHIVE via Aspen Journalism

#Colorado Committed to Solutions Ahead of #ColoradoRiver Talks — Governor Jared Polis #COriver #aridification

Governor Polis signs SB23-270 (Projects To Restore Natural Stream Systems) into law. Photo: Abby Burk

Click the link to read the article on Governor Polis’ website:

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2026

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Governor Polis released the following statement ahead of a meeting between Western governors and federal officials on the Colorado River. 

“Colorado is coming to Washington committed to an agreement that reflects real world water supplies and shares responsibility across all seven Basin states. I am fighting for Colorado water users and our way of life. I look forward to working with Interior and Basin partners to develop a better way to protect the river, respect our state authority, and provide long-term certainty for so many people and communities who depend on the mighty Colorado River,” said Governor Jared Polis. 

The river sustains communities, Tribal nations, agriculture, and critical hydropower infrastructure across the West. Protecting Lake Powell and Lake Mead is not a regional concern – it is a shared obligation essential to the stability of the entire system. 

Colorado has invested heavily in conservation and efficiency while honoring existing water rights and interstate compacts and is prepared to continue that work. A sustainable agreement must be supply-based, enforceable, and equitable.

Figure 1. America is about as unprepared for a dangerous trip down the rapids of climate change as this group would have been going down the rapids of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Photo taken at the Colorado River crossing at Hite Ferry, Utah, in 1946. (Image credit: Utah Historical Society)