{"id":610557,"date":"2018-08-05T07:00:08","date_gmt":"2018-08-05T13:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=610557"},"modified":"2018-08-06T05:49:37","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T11:49:37","slug":"drought-maintains-its-grip-on-nm-despite-storms-but-el-nino-is-on-the-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/08\/drought-maintains-its-grip-on-nm-despite-storms-but-el-nino-is-on-the-horizon\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought maintains its grip on NM despite storms, but El Ni\u00f1o is on the horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Monsoon

Laura Paskus \/ New Mexico Political Report<\/p>

Monsoon season in New Mexico.<\/p><\/div>\n

Anyone who recently watched recent floodwaters rip down the Santa Fe River or the Rio Puerco \u2014 or had a skylight punctured by hail \u2014 might be tempted to declare that the annual monsoons ended New Mexico\u2019s drought.<\/p>\n

But breaking the drought requires more than a handful of rainstorms, even big storms. And grappling with its impacts means policymakers should listen to scientists and constituents, ranging from farmers to city-dwellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though we got a lot of rain, and there\u2019s great reporting on floods and great pictures on the internet, it\u2019s a slow process to make up for what we\u2019ve lost,\u201d said New Mexico\u2019s state climatologist, David DuBois.<\/p>\n

The weekly New Mexico Drought Monitor, released Thursday, shows improvements in New Mexico, mainly in the eastern part of the state. But 99.9 percent of the state is still in drought, with 46 percent of the state experiencing exceptional or extreme drought conditions. Compare that with this time last year, when 95 percent of the state wasn\u2019t experiencing any drought conditions.<\/p>\n

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Even if storms continue dumping rains in certain parts of the state, it will still take another month of steady storms to improve conditions, said DuBois. That\u2019s because the current drought episode began last fall. And the winter\u2019s \u201csnow drought\u201d continues to hurt New Mexico\u2019s water supplies.<\/p>\n

Navajo Reservoir on the San Juan River has dropped about 100,000 acre feet since last month. On the Pecos, water managers released 30,000 acre feet from Santa Rosa Lake to Brantley Reservoir downstream for the Carlsbad Irrigation District. Heron Lake on the Chama River is down about 30,000 acre feet from last month \u2014 and nearby El Vado Reservoir is holding only 9,000 acre feet in total right now. Irrigation water is also being released from Elephant Butte Reservoir, which is at\u00a06.4 percent capacity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Middle Rio Grande is flowing continuously for the first time since April, thanks to storm flows through the Rio Puerco and Albuquerque\u2019s diversion system. But its levels are still low. So are levels on the Jemez River, the Animas River and the Pecos River.<\/p>\n

\"Abiquiu

Laura Paskus \/ New Mexico Political Report<\/p>

Abiquiu Reservoir on the Chama River at the end of July.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even if winter precipitation looks good on paper, if it falls as rain instead of snow, that\u2019s a problem for New Mexico. \u201cThen you have the rain soaking in, and we\u2019re not getting the storage we need for later when we have the runoff season,\u201d DuBois said. \u201cEven if we have good precipitation, it bites us in the tail because we don\u2019t get that delivery when we need it in the spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Better communication<\/h3>\n

DuBois regularly travels the state, holding workshops, visiting with farmers and ranchers and maintaining monitoring sites. He said most people he meets, from all walks of life, understand the climate is changing and the region is warming. But they don\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n

Scientists can provide outlooks and projections. But people are unsure what to do with that information. \u201cThere needs to be more discussion of problem-solving,\u201d he said. There also needs to be better communication between scientists and policymakers.<\/p>\n

Scientists sounded the alarm last fall about drought conditions. By January, with a lack of snowpack in the mountains, the situation looked dire \u2014 and by spring, exceptional drought conditions had taken over the state.<\/p>\n

Yet, the Office of the Governor failed to issue a drought declaration until July, when 98.6 percent of the state was already rated abnormally dry or worse. From San Juan County to Union County, crop reports showed that range conditions were poor and water availability low. Not only that, but aside from issuing the July 11\u00a0executive order<\/a>, Gov. Susana Martinez does not appear to have taken any action on the emergency.<\/p>\n