Flip on the radio or TV in the last few days, and it seems like much of the country is still trying to dig itself out of the snow and ice from this week’s big winter storm.
Here out west, it's a much different story. For the most part, it's been unseasonably warm and dry.
So much so that the Department of the Interior this week revised its prediction for water coming down the Colorado River in the coming year. The snowpack in the Colorado Rockies, which feeds the river, is less than two-thirds the average for this time of year. So, the Bureau of Reclamation has revised its estimated 2026 water-year inflow from 68 to 63 percent.
Scott Franz covers the Colorado River for KUNC Public Radio in northern Colorado. He told KNPR's State of Nevada that much of the region is experiencing a poor water year.
"When you look at the map across the region, it's orange and red. Here in Colorado, we're about 58% of our normal snow pack. [In] the State of Utah, 94% is in some form of drought. In a lot of places, we're at record lows, or are approaching that for this time of year."
All of this is happening while water managers from the seven basin states are negotiating how best to divvy up the river going forward. Franz has followed the negotiations. According to Franz, things are not going well.
"The sense I'm getting is that some states have dug in a little bit at this point," he said. "They've been negotiating for so long; they've floated all these proposals, but they're still stuck with a few weeks here before a very critical deadline to come up with a plan to share and conserve this water as it continues to dwindle due to climate change and drought.
"It'll be interesting to have a new political dynamic with the governors of these states being in the same room," Franz reasoned. "Perhaps they can reach some sort of agreement, or change the direction of these negotiations, which couldn't happen when you have the negotiators in the room stuck at an impasse."
Negotiators have until February 14 to reach a compromise. However, it remains unclear what happens if no deal is reached.
Guests: Scott Franz, reporter, KUNC Public Radio
