Dog Days Quick Hits

Thank you O Cloud Gods for finally bringing the monsoon, or at least some cooling afternoon rain to the Four Corners Country. I don’t know that it will bring the end of the Dog Days, but at least it’s some moisture to replenish the rapidly drying soil and bring the streams back up for a few days.

Whiling away the Dog Days …

⛈️ Some places further West got too much rain, with Tropical Storm Hilary wreaking havoc and causing flooding in parts of southern California and Nevada (while leaving some areas with nothing but a nice soak).

🥵 But the rain didn’t wash away the heat entirely: southern California and southern and central Arizona are about to get hit with high temperatures yet again. Those folks just can’t get a break, it seems. Phoenix has had a few “cooler” days this month (with the mercury topping out in the 90s), but the average daily temperature so far is still far above “normal” for August, making for a slightly less extreme repeat of July.

☀️ The monsoon has yet to slow the return of drought conditions in much of the West. About 45% of the Western U.S. — including the entire Four Corners region — is currently in some stage of drought, compared to 34% back in early July. Still, it’s looking a heck of a lot better out there than the last couple of summers.

🔥 Wildfire smoke blankets the far northern reaches of California and southern Oregon, with the Smith River Complex being the largest blaze in the region at 57,000+ acres burned so far.

🚰 This Las Vegas Review-Journal story, about an industrial park bringing in more tenants, seems rather bland at first. But this part jumped out: “… roughly 115 people are moving to Clark County every day … The county is expected to gain 42,066 residents this year alone.” That’s 42,066 more people drawing from the diminishing Colorado River. Just sayin’.

🚤 On that topic, Hilary and the monsoon gave Lake Powell inflows a nice boost, sending them above median levels for the short-term, at least, after spending much of the summer in a rut. But it hasn’t been enough to boost the reservoir’s water levels, since releases are up to generate hydropower and give a bit more H2O to Lake Mead.

👨🏽‍🌾 Here’s a new one: California irrigators are joining environmentalists in calling for Glen Canyon Dam to come down, reports KLAS. Imperial Valley farmers urged the Bureau of Reclamation to honor senior water rights and stop demanding cuts to prop up Glen Canyon’s hydropower capacity, writing: “Past proposals by environmental groups to decommission Glen Canyon Dam or to operate the reservoir without power production as a primary goal can no longer be ignored and must be seriously considered … .”

Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

💣 That wouldn’t necessarily mean blowing up the dam, even though that may be the funnest option. In a fascinating report about the Colorado River crisis, authors Jack Schmidt, Charles Yackulic, and Eric Kuhn ponder a different scenario. They find that Colorado River water consumption must be slashed 13% to 20% to recover the water drained from Lakes Powell and Mead over the last two decades. That won’t be easy without drying up vast swaths of agricultural land or entire cities, suggesting the need to consider doing away with one of those reservoirs. In the fill Mead first scenario, river diversion tunnels would be drilled through the cliffs around Glen Canyon Dam, allowing for a sort of detoured “run of the river,” yet also allowing the tunnels to be closed and the reservoir revived if runoff conditions warranted. The paper is worth a read.

🤑 Rich folks are bad for the climate. That’s one of the conclusions of a peer-reviewed study that found America’s wealthiest 10% are responsible for about 40% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. This imbalance isn’t just due to the fact that rich people consume more, but also because of whence their money comes. How to fix this inequality? The authors make a suggestion: “Results suggest an alternative income or shareholder-based carbon tax, focused on investments, may have equity advantages over traditional consumer-facing cap-and-trade or carbon tax options and be a useful policy tool to encourage decarbonization while raising revenue for climate finance.”

Source: Income-based U.S. household carbon footprints (1990–2019) offer new insights on emissions inequality and climate finance

🐻 Motorists involved in a car crash outside Telluride are blaming the calamity on a bear. Which isn’t very fair (considering it was the dodo drivers who slammed on their brakes to get a gander of the fair bear).

🐶 Oh, and don’t blame the Dog Days on the dogs, either. Okay!? Have a great weekend. Watch out for lightning and flash floods.⚡️