Experts say the term 'drought' may be insufficient to capture what is happening in the West

 

As the American West continues into its 22nd year of a parching megadrought, officials at the federal government's top water resource management agency are trying to plan for an uncertain and unprecedented time for the nation's largest reservoirs.

"When [the system] was built 100 years ago, you could look outside your window if you're in Colorado and see snow, and know that that's your reservoir for the spring," Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton told CNN in an exclusive interview. "It's not like that anymore. What you're seeing there is just a completely different way in which the system is managed."

Winter weather conditions in the West have been, in a word, inconsistent.

The bigger picture is stark. The West's megadrought is the region's worst in at least 1,200 years, according to a study published Monday, and researchers said the human-caused climate crisis has made the megadrought 72% worse.Western water experts echoed the concern that the term "drought" may be insufficient to capture the region's current hydrology. 

"Aridification" might be more accurate, said Eric Kuhn, a retired former manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District...MORE