No-snow November Becomes Dry December
A major weather system is parked over the Pacific Ocean - bound for a wide swath of the West Coast. This event - no matter how much rain falls - will not change the narrative around drought. The No-snow November in Denver, Colorado to now a Dry December is adding to an already precarious position.
Transcript
The megadrought gripping Western U.S. states has climate officials looking to the mountains and asking, “Where’s the snowpack?”
A La Nina weather pattern has delayed winter’s arrival in Colorado, pushing storm tracks destined for the Mile High City further north into the Pacific Northwest and Canada. The unseasonably warm temperatures melted the record for the longest period before a measurable snowfall was recorded in Denver.
Climate scientists are concerned about how the late arrival of snow at higher elevations will translate into spring runoff. The Western U.S. is stuck in its second year of a megadrought.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, concerns about the lack of snowpack in the west pushed officials with the California Department of Water Resources to announce zero water allocations for 29 agencies that contract for water through the state Water Project. The move will cut back water used for agricultural purposes and only allow use for health and safety.
North of California it’s the opposite problem. The National Weather Service reported a series of wet storms, also known as Atmospheric Rivers, brought nearly 20 inches of rain to Washington state. Between September 1st and November 30th, the storms caused rivers and streams to escape their banks across the Evergreen state.
For Market to Market, I’m John Torpy torpy@iowapbs.org