Marc Morano sent this over, It is a treasure trove of misinformation and fun. I’ll tackle it one piece at a time.
In recent years, for example, the water level of Lake Powell (it covers portions of Utah and Arizona) has dropped so far that the waterfalls and canyons drowned when Glen Canyon Dam was built are visible again.
Lake Powell water levels have actually increased by more than 60 feet since 2004.
There seems to be a “JournoList” thing happening here, not unexpected among AGW-believing reporters. Below is a letter-to-the-editor I sent on 11/6 to the Arizona Republic. It went unpublished, also fairly typical for AGW-believing publication receiving criticism about global warming misrepresentations. Here, I’ve added web links to my otherwise verbatim letter:
Editor,
Regarding your recent article http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/11/01/20101101lake-mead-water-level-down.html about low water in Lake Mead, I don’t understand why the three year+ water level rise in Lake Powell wasn’t mentioned at length for comparison. Shaun McKinnon only mentioned Lake Powell at the article’s end, in a short note about transferring water to Lake Mead to keep it above ‘drought triggers’, yet the AZ Republic reported on the rise in Lake Powell only this past spring, saying “snowmelt will raise Lake Powell to levels higher than last summer” (“Snowmelt to raise Lake Powell, keep shortcut open”, May. 24, 2010 http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/05/24/20100524lake-powell-level.html ), and reported about the re-emergence of the Castle Rock boating shortcut due to rising water last year (“Lake Powell boating shortcut reopens”, May. 8, 2009 http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/08/20090508lake-powell0508-ON.html ), and reported about a massive rise in the lake in 2008 resulting from 180% above normal runoff (“Lake Powell: More water, better boating”, May. 15, 2008 http://www.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/features/articles/0515lakepowell0518main.html ). As the two lakes are only around 250 miles apart, it would appear the situation in Lake Mead is more likely the result of complex water allocation, not drought conditions. Is the lack of story comparisons an oversight by McKinnon?
They are probably holding water to have a major spring flood to restore habitat between Powell and Mead. I do not recall the agreement that was reached with the ECO NUTS!
The graph covers much to short of a time period and only 100 ft of elevation.
This was built for drawing off water for irrigation and for power. If memory serves Powell is the source for water in the central Arizona water project. It was also built as a buffer for Lake Mead to reduce the drastic changes there as Boulder Dam was first a flood control project , second a power generating project. Boulder Dam releases water to Davis Dam which is a generating and flood control, then to Parker where the water is diverted to the imperial valley.
Water retention rules were changed by BLM to allow controlled flooding down river for wild life habitat and to reduce the amount of water retained to avert a situation like the 80s when all the dams were above capacity and flooding occurred down stream.
I was Raised 7 miles from Boulder Dam / Hoover Dam. I do not know if one of these names has yet become official because regionally they are interchangeable. At least they still were when I left the region in 2006.
One of the problems is they use a rolling average when considering future plans for water sharing which is based on the previous 30 year average just like NWS which changes in 2011 to be based on 1981 to 2010. This is even though new information proves that long term weather patterns vary over a much longer period than 30 years. By observing longer term patterns they would have had the ability to better project what might be expected.
“It is a treasure trove of misinformation and fun”
Yes, even me (a layman) could refute most of this crap – and the funny thing is…I actually owe my humble knowledge about the climate to the warmistas
..warmistas made me want to learn more that is – but I owe my real thanks to all the honest scientist out there, doing what they are supposed to do, collecting and presenting date in an unbiased way… and especially to all the skeptic sites for all I have leaned
The article starts with this :-
“”By overwhelming consensus, the scientific community agrees that climate change is real. Greenhouse gases have increased markedly as a result of human activities and now far exceed pre-industrial values.”
So says Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of Geneva, Switzerland”
I don’t think we need to read any further.