NM Drought Worst Since 1880s - Rio Grande In 6th Straight Year Of Below-Avg. Flows
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With February more than half-gone, drought conditions are getting worse, not better, and it seems likely 2014 will be the sixth consecutive drier-than-average year on New Mexico’s Rio Grande. You have to go back before we had river measurement gauges, to estimates based on tree ring records, to find the last time we had a losing streak that long.
From 1873 to 1883, the Rio Grande experienced four straight dry years, had a break with an average year, then another six dry years in a row, according to University of Arizona professor Connie Woodhouse. Since that time, we haven’t had six dry years in a row until now.
With drought stretching from Seattle across the western United States and all the way to Baton Rouge, La., the question of “the worst drought since …” has become a popular weather nerd’s parlor game. How you answer the question depends on where you are and how you want to quantify “drought” there.
In central New Mexico, flow on the Rio Grande is one of the best indicators. It is the sum of the winter snows that fall in the mountains and provide vital water to valley dwellers – plant, animal and human. By that measure, our current drought is a doozy. As measured by natural flows at the Otowi gauge, the point where the Rio Grande passes San Ildefonso Pueblo in north-central New Mexico, just two years since 2000 – 2005 and 2008 – have been wetter than the long-term average. By this measure – multiyear duration of low flows on the Rio Grande – we haven’t had a drought this bad in 130 years.
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http://www.abqjournal.com/354854/news/new-mexicos-drought-worst-since-1880s.html
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