The West’s rainy season is coming up, but recent storms have made the snowpack and drought conditions much better, especially in California.
Currently, neither California nor Nevada is “essentially drought-free,” which doesn’t happen very often. Lake Mead and Powell, two lakes in the Colorado River Basin, are now about one-third full. This is up from 25% last year, but still a long way from their all-time highs of 95% in the early 2000s.
Water laws from the 1800s, infrastructure from the 1900s, population growth in the 2000s, and climate change in the 2010s are to blame for the long-term water issue in the west.
The wet winter is not a solution to this problem. The long-term answer is a mix of water laws from the 1800s, infrastructure from the 1900s, and population growth from the 2000s.