Special Report

Water situation improves in part of the West

The water situation has improved in the northern parts of the western United States but not in California and the Southwest. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service says most of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and northern Colorado and Utah received two-to-three times their normal precipitation in April, as a result those areas will have normal to above-normal water supplies in the coming months. In fact the snowpack in Montana and Wyoming is now at record levels.

Unfortunately the situation is quite different to the south, the report calls for “far below normal streamflow for southern Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, southern Utah and western Nevada.

The NRCS has conducted snow surveys and water supply forecasts since 1939. The April 1st supply forecast is used by water managers, reservoir operators and irrigation districts to make strategic decisions for their operations.

Read more from NRCS here;