Climate change may help the Colorado River, new study says

This article is published through the Colorado River Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative supported by the Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air at Utah State University.

A new study found that the Colorado River may experience a rebound after two decades of decreased flows due to drought and global warming.

“Importantly, we find climate change will likely increase precipitation in the Colorado headwaters,” Professor Martin Hoerling, the study’s lead author, wrote to The Salt Lake Tribune in an email. “This will compensate some if not most of the depleting effects of further warming.”

Recently published in the Journal of Climate, the study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science used data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Researchers analyzed precipitation, temperature and flows at Lees Ferry, a point 15 miles downstream of Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona. Lees Ferry serves as the dividing line between the Upper and Lower Colorado River Basin.

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