As the soggy East tries to dry out from flooding and Texas prays for rain that doesn't come, you might ask: Isn't there some way to ship all that water from here to there? It's an idea that has tempted some, but reality gets in the way.

The spring runoff season is an exciting time for hydrologists. “This is our favorite time of year,” said Bryon Lawrence, a hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Grand Junction.

To the average person, the weather this winter, especially in February, has certainly been a departure from those winters of the past few years. There has been record snowfall in the mid-Atlantic region, bitter cold in the Deep South, and remarkably mild weather for the Pacific Northwest and New England.

More than a third of the contiguous USA has a higher-than-average risk of flooding in the coming months, and residents in the Midwest are likely to see the worst of it, government forecasters warned Tuesday.

Regulators are concerned about an array of chemicals and pharmaceuticals—synthetic estrogen used in birth control pills, anti-bacterial agents in hand sanitizers and a flame retardant used on computers, furniture and cars—that can accumulate in the tissue of animals and people.

The latest predictions for a mid-winter dry spell may cause some headaches for Colorado water managers as they try to juggle supplies to maintain stream flows and fill reservoirs.

The Obama administration called Thursday for a comprehensive national system for regulating the use of federal waters along the nation’s marine and Great Lakes shores, now administered by a hodgepodge of federal, state or other agencies with often-conflicting goals.