Helpful sites for tracking snow and the (subpar) snowpack
There’s no shortage of websites with maps and graphics visualizing snow forecasts and the state of the snowpack.
Solar growth cushions Colorado River hydropower declines
Lakes Mead and Powell, the basin’s two largest reservoirs, are approaching critical levels in which hydropower from their dams (Hoover and Glen Canyon, respectively) would be severely curtailed or altogether cease.
Kremmling rancher picked to replace Schwartz on state water board
Gov. Polis has appointed Kremmling rancher Paul Bruchez to replace former state Sen. Gail Schwartz on the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Colorado River faces ‘devastating consequences’ if another dry winter lands, experts warn
Even a huge snowpack during the coming winter would only give the river basin states less than two years of storage before reservoirs returned to historic lows.
Humans are great at giving real problems the side-eye
Two new books provide insights into the willful ignorance that lead to the West’s water woes.
Just in time for the holidays, feds offer $500,000 high-tech water contest
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is offering $500,000 for a better tool to measure how much water snowflakes contain.
Photos: Boulder Creek and Gross Reservoir
This page features photos of Gross Reservoir, Boulder Creek and the creek’s 2013 floods on Colorado’s Front Range.
Located in Boulder County, Gross Reservoir was created as a water storage...
Many U.S. reservoirs could be rendered useless by sedimentation
There's a looming infrastructure crisis: America’s reservoirs are filling up with sediment.
Corporate support for the river
For decades, water managers and environmentalists have worked to keep a critical stretch of the drought-stressed Colorado River healthy enough to support endangered fish. This year, they’re getting a...
Data vis for water journalism – Water Buffs Podcast ep. 1 – Geoff McGhee
We talk with Water Desk consultant Geoff McGhee about some of the ways that data visualizations can help journalists tell stories about water. We discuss dashboards on our website that allow users to track and analyze data on drought, precipitation, the snowpack and major dams and reservoirs.












