Spring, 2023 Update

Since I wrote this in June, 2022, the western United States has seen a lot of precipitation. The “atmospheric river” dumped weeks of rain on the northwest. (I was hunkered down on the Oregon coast during most of it.) Snowpack in the California mountains is more than double normal levels. Wyoming has near-record amounts of snow in the higher elevations, with some concern that rapid melt and rain could cause a repeat of last June’s Yellowstone flooding. the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is predicting that levels of Wyoming’s two major lakes, Bighorn and Boysen will exceed 30-year averages, and Lake Powell levels could increase by 100 feet or more.

While one winter of heavy precipitation will not solve the problems of low pool in Powell and Mead, it will certainly help. We shall see what the summer holds.