When water managers in Arizona are trying to plan for how much water they’ll get from rivers and reservoirs, they look to the mountain snow. A new study compares different programs for measuring that snow, and found that they produce wildly different estimates. The study, published in the journal Water Resources Research, mostly found problems with long-term models, and said most water managers in the Southwest are using more accurate systems for predicting the amount of water in reservoirs in the near term. High-altitude snow is far more important to the Southwest’s water supply than summer rains, so getting accurate data about that snow is pivotal for the people who make plans for the water that flows to cities and farms across the region. 

Other water forecast news:

• The Colorado Sun (Denver): Colorado says goodbye to a “doozy” of a water year with more moisture in the forecast