Brad Udall – The Conversation

Sprinklers water a lettuce field in Holtville, California with Colorado River water. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images

April 13, 2023

The Colorado River drought crisis: 5 essential reads

Jennifer Weeks, The Conversation

Two decades of drought have reduced the river’s flow by one-third compared to historical averages. The Biden administration is considering mandatory cuts to some states’ water allocations.

The white “bathtub ring” around Arizona’s Lake Mead (shown on May 31, 2018), which indicates falling water levels, is about 140 feet high. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

July 10, 2019

Western states buy time with a 7‑year Colorado River drought plan, but face a hotter, drier future

Brad Udall, Colorado State University; Douglas Kenney, University of Colorado Boulder, and John Fleck, University of New Mexico

Western states adopted a 7-year plan in May 2019 to manage low water levels in the Colorado River. Now they need to look farther ahead and accept that there will be less water far into the future.

Lake Powell, photographed April 12, 2017. The white ‘bathtub ring’ at the cliff base indicates how much higher the lake reached at its peak, nearly 100 feet above the current level. Patti Weeks

June 14, 2017

Climate change is shrinking the Colorado River

Brad Udall, Colorado State University and Jonathan Overpeck, University of Arizona

The Colorado River supplies water to millions of people and irrigates thousands of miles of farmland. New research warns that climate change is likely to magnify droughts in the Colorado Basin.

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