{"id":47297,"date":"2021-04-20T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/warm-weather-wind-evaporates-irrigation-season\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:37:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:37:45","slug":"warm-weather-wind-evaporates-irrigation-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/warm-weather-wind-evaporates-irrigation-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Warm weather, wind evaporates irrigation season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Below
Below normal snowpack will lead to irrigation shortages this year out of McPhee Reservoir.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Runoff from below-average snowpack is forecast to result in the lowest project irrigation supply in McPhee Reservoir history.<\/p>\n

According to most probable forecast, Dolores River Basin snowmelt is expected to deliver 95,000 acre-feet of water to McPhee Reservoir, just 32% of the average 295,000 acre-feet average, reports the Colorado River Basin Forecast Center. The forecast could also continue to drop.<\/p>\n

Full-service farmers of the Dolores Project are expected to receive just 1 inch per acre of irrigation water, or 4.5% of the 22 inches per acre provided when the reservoir fills, reports Ken Curtis, general manager for the Dolores Water Conservancy District that manages McPhee.<\/p>\n

The forecast of 1 inch per acre is \u201cthe wost ever\u201d for the Dolores Project, he said. The reservoir first filled in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

The previous worst irrigation seasons for McPhee Reservoir were in 2013 and 2002, when farmers received 6 inches per acre.<\/p>\n

The amount of water predicted for this year is not enough for even one normal crop of alfalfa. With a full supply farmers typically get three to four crops of alfalfa per year. Farmers will be forced to consolidate crops into smaller acreage to produce anything on the limited water.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s forecast shows McPhee Reservoir will fill less than 40% of its 229,000 acre-feet active capacity, according to forecast models. The reservoir had no significant carryover supply from last year\u2019s water season.<\/p>\n

Water shortages are across the board, except for domestic supplies for municipalities.<\/p>\n

Ute Farm and Ranch on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation is predicted to receive about 2,000 acre-feet, or 8.5% of the 23,300 acre-feet delivered when the reservoir has a full supply.<\/p>\n

The water supply for downstream fish habitat dropped to less than 5,000 acre-feet of the 32,000 acre-feet provided when the reservoir fills.<\/p>\n

Ashley Nielson, a senior hydrologist with the Colorado River Basin Forecast Center, said snowpack in the Dolores Basin took hits from multiple angles.<\/p>\n

With the exception of a few good snowstorms, the basin experienced an extended dry period since April 2020, she said.<\/p>\n

No monsoonal precipitation last summer dried out soils, which will cause snowmelt to be absorbed into the ground before it hits the river and McPhee.<\/p>\n

Below-normal snowpack further suffered from warm weather and high winds in April, plus dust on snow that sped up evaporation.<\/p>\n

April precipitation at the Lizard Head Pass Snotel is below normal, showing 0.2 inches, or 15% of the average 1.4 inches for the month.<\/p>\n

Farmers and water managers have been tracking a startling drop in snowpack in the past few weeks.<\/p>\n

On March 29, the Dolores Basin snowpack showed 83% of average for snow-water equivalent. On April 19, snowpack water equivalent had dropped to 32%.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt disappeared fast, and it could still get drier,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farmers expected to receive just a fraction of normal supply<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[281,21,13,28,280,29,294],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-agriculture","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-mcphee-reservoir","tag-newsletter","tag-water-supply"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87155,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47297\/revisions\/87155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47297"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}