Status of Western Water Reservoirs: December 30, 2023

I used to report on Reservoir Levels. The article this evening is a second attempt at doing this. I have now been able to include New Mexico information.

It contains a lot of information. I will be republishing this article periodically and adding and improving to it. What I am providing today has images that should update automatically. But I also have provided links to those images and additional information.

At this point, it is far from perfect but a start. It is particularly important because in many cases the water in reservoirs comes from last year’s precipitation. So with uncertainty as to how this El Nino winter will evolve, we need to monitor the amount of water we have in storage.

Let’s get started.

Many but not all reservoirs are managed by the Bureau of Reclamation or BOR. This LINK goes to the master list. But it does not include all reservoirs just Bureau of Reclamation Reservoirs.

Upper Colorado River Drainage Basin

I was able to find teacup diagrams for the Upper Colorado River Drainage Basin. These images should update automatically but if not HERE is the link.

Lower Colorado Region

This map should update automatically (when there are updates). But if not. here is the LINK.

This LINK will take you to similar information for California

This LINK will take you to similar information for the Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region

This Link will take you to similar information for the Missouri Basin and Arkansas-Rio Grande-Texas Gulf Regions.

Now let us take a look at New Mexico. HERE is the link. Let’s take a look at some of the information. There is a lot more if you go to the link provided.

This particular graphic does not auto-update but you can get an updated version HERE.

Above is Reservoir Storage. But what about the future inflows to these reservoirs? To get a feel for that, we take a look HERE.

You can see the north-south divide with respect to precipitation. The south has been dry and the north about average.

When we look at snowpack, it is mostly deficient. We are just approaching the end of December so there are two more months of winter and potential beyond that but so far this El Nino has been better than some recent years but not a big producer of rain and snow. But that might change.

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I hope you found this article interesting and useful.

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