Colorado’s water future could look more like Arizona’s. That means a lot less snow and water for the Colorado River.
Parts of Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states could be facing a water future that more closely resembles Arizona, new federal research finds. The drier and warmer conditions could mean less snow accumulates in the mountains of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and melts into a water system that feeds the Colorado River, researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Earth and Environmental Sciences division found. Warmer temperatures have already contributed to a 20 percent drop in the flow of the Colorado River since the 1900s, which supplies millions of people across the West with water and hydroelectric power.
Related articles: