But the western states continue to descend deeper and deeper into drought and an unprecedented water crisis
By Patrick Ruckert
November 17, 2021
Over the past two or three weeks the west has been hit with several storms, one of which dropped record amounts of precipitation on northern California, Oregon and Washington. Storms have continued to inundate the northwest, but not California. And that record storm did little to alleviate the drought.
October through March each year, California receives the vast majority of the precipitation it gets from a few atmospheric rivers over the course of the six months. When the Autumn and Winter storms do not arrive the state goes into an immediate drought. That is not the worst of it. The Colorado River basin, upon which 40 million people in the seven states that are members of the Colorado River Compact and northern Mexico depend upon for water and electricity from the Hoover and Parker dams’ reservoirs, has been in a 20 year drought.
