The forecasted unregulated inflow for Water Year 2021 (Oct. The 30-year (1981-2010) average for unregulated inflow into Lake Powell is 10.83 million acre-feet. Contrary to the expectation that relatively higher precipitation would result in a larger runoff volume, unregulated inflow into Lake Powell gauged at an utterly abysmal 54 percent of average. A lack of spring rain helped dry out soils to such an extent that those thirsty soils soaked up far more watershed runoff than normal this spring.Īs a result, Rocky Mountain region snowpack from the 2020-2021 snow-season peaked at 89 percent of seasonal median. The near historic lack of monsoon moisture in 2020 contributed substantially to the extraordinarily low rate of runoff into the Colorado River system this spring. So, are we to conclude that summer rainstorms have no meaningful effect on drought conditions? Absolutely not! “It’s helpful, but it also doesn’t solve the problem,” observed ADWR’s Chief Hydrologist Jeff Inwood earlier this week.
After more than two decades of dry conditions, it would take several consecutive years of deep snowpack to release from drought’s grip. Fending off drought – especially the kind of long-running drought the Southwest has experienced - takes deep winter snowpack in the region’s mountainous watersheds.
But truth be told, summer storms just aren’t drought-killers. Rainfall in an arid place is almost always a welcome event. Even before the substantial torrents of summer rains over the past week or so finally paused, water and weather experts were acting to contain the public’s excitement about the impact of the monsoon on the Southwest’s long-running drought.
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