February 23, 2007--Unusual summer sizzle may mean water woes (Albuquerque Tribune)
...One of the clearest warming trends is in the Southwest U.S...That is the standard prediction for most seasons in the Southwest because of global warming trends. The bigger issue related to that, however, is how rising temperatures will affect water in the West, as snowpack melts earlier in the year and starts to build up later. The trends we see in the data and the trends we continue to predict into the future are all connected to reduced stream flows in the main Western rivers...We expect snowpack to decrease, to melt earlier, and that makes it difficult to manage reservoirs...From a management perspective, having snow melt earlier, the need to store water increases, and that stresses the storage system...As the climate continues to change, the state could see more droughts--and more heavy rainfall and flash floods.
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