drought

States that use the Colorado River say they want to avoid litigation about its future, but are unable to agree on a plan to share water.

Colorado's negotiator, Becky Mitchell, and Nevada's, John Entsminger, spoke to a crowd of policy experts and answered questions from the audience.

Researchers looked at more than 750,000 wildfires in the West between 1992 and 2020. In the second half of that period, the number of reported wildfires were down by 31%, but acreage burned was up 40%.

Longer wildfire seasons can blanket communities in smoke. Summer heat records continue to rise. Drought remains a persistent concern for water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems.

The federal government will soon finalize a framework for distributing dwindling Colorado River water, but it’s facing urgent questions.

Water negotiators, river enthusiasts, Native tribes and lots of lawyers convened at the University of Colorado Law School on Thursday to take stock of the future of the dwindling Colorado River.

Water experts are calling for urgent changes at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, as a dry winter could send reservoir levels dangerously low.

The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) released its monthly wildfire potential outlook. In June and July, parts of Northeast Wyoming could receive large wildfires that later shift into the southwest.

Wildfire risk is rising across the West after a dry winter and ongoing drought left vegetation more vulnerable to fire. Now, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno are putting about $3.5 million in federal funding to work on a project aimed at reducing that risk in the eastern Sierra Nevada.

A team of researchers at Arizona State University is building models to track the amount of water in snow, soils and streams.