Bad News - Good News

"A long December and there's reason to believe / Maybe this year will be better than the last."

Counting Crows

1    The 2025 water year, ending October 1, was the driest in 85 years in Park City with only 13 inches of precipitation or 60% of average and nothing all summer. Then we had 7 inches of rain by New Years so the Calendar year looks average and we forgot the drought.    This has been predicted by me and Brian McInerney of the NWS for the last 30 years.  Our new Rain Hydrology

2    Average Park City temperatures are up 3-5 degrees over 100 years and Summer morning low average temperatures are up 10 degrees over the past 50 years.  Normal weather changes are being compounded by climate change and are exponential and not linear.

3    The last three months were 10 degrees above average.  We were breaking some daily temperature records by 5 degrees.  We are losing as much as a month on either end of the ski season.  Even a blind man knows when it is not snowing.  

4    Statewide snowpack is less than 50% of average.  Same for the Colorado River basin and most of the west.  This is a regional weather pattern that was predicted 20 years ago by the Dr Simon Wang of the State Climatologist office.  

5     The Great Salt Lake should expect much less than 50% of average runoff and should hit its historical low next fall and could see ecosystem collapse within 5 years.  That is not to mention the toxic dust clouds in the Wasatch that kill people and compound early and less runoff.  This was Ai predicted 30 years ago by Dr. Upman Lall of USU. 

6    The legislature is fasting and praying for another big runoff year like 2023 and proposing authority and funding for more water use development.  They propose to remove from Water Right approval criterion; the affects to the natural steam, recreation and Public Welfare clauses.

7    The State needs to buy 8-million-acre feet (Flaming Gorge) of water from farmers at a cost of 2-3 billion dollars to fix The Lake.  The State allocated only 50 million dollars to save the lake.  There are 150 terminal lakes in the world experiencing collapse.  None have been saved.  

The state has turned to philanthrope for a solution and the Romney family has given them $100 million but we need deep pockets for this one. I believe that the only way to save the lake is to have The Church step in and help.  They have the money, water, political ware-with-all, authority, dominion, responsibility and the most to gain from saving our little Vatican city from ruin.  I would be like the seagulls eating the crickets to save Zion.  Trump has offered to fix it but then it would have to be the Great Trump Lake and this should be a state thing.

8    The Colorado River is expecting less than half the average runoff while Lake Powell and Mead are only 25% full.  Lake Powell is looking at Minimum Power pool in 1-2 years, where we have o burn stuff to replace the power, and Dead Pool in 5-10, where they lose control of flows for the Grand Canyon and Compact deliveries. No one is talking about replumbing the Glen Canyon dam to insure lower basin states get their allocation, even if the upper basin wants to give it to them.   At the end of he day we might just get Glen Canyon back again, soft rock and gentle rapids to explore in canoes and inner tubes.

9    Western Governors are now meeting in DC with the Feds and their lawyers to renegotiate the Colorado Compact of 1922 and devise a plan, by the end of the year, since the state's reps could not do it on time.  The Colorado compact was created to avoid the Feds and lawyers.  How's that working out.  The Supreme Court doesn't want it so we could give this one to Trump.  He could just take over the basin and stop people from growing hay or eating cows and we could all be happy.   California could desalinate water to grow rice and Arizona could stop growing cotton

10    GOOD NEWS.   There is some snow in the forecast for next week and more changes for next month.  Our climate is now dominated by extreme events, like 2023 snow and last October's rain, so we could expect at least one big storm cycle this year, on average.  Pray that it is snow!

Solutions range from creating free and fair markets for water so we all pay the true price, cost, value and worth of water while maintaining the public welfare for all self evident, inalienable human water requirements.   This would encourage adjustment of the prior appropriation doctrine of first in line, first in right, use it or lose it.  We would also be incentivized to address climate change and alternative energy.  We might even grow less hay to feed less cows, if the price is right.  We might even vote green; to save the plane and make money at the same time.  There is enough water out there, we just need to choose wisely how to use it.