In what is becoming an all too common occurrence, residents in Santa Clara were forced from their homes by a flash flood on Thursday night. Fellner St. No injuries were reported, and those residents who evacuated were allowed to return home last night. More in today’s Daily Press.

The office of the State Engineer has posted an update (pdf) to the State Water Plan, for those of you interested in such things: New Mexico’s First State Water Plan Progress Report for 2006 will endeavor to describe the steps that the Office of the State Engineer and Interstate Stream Commission have taken to use [...]

Representatives from Sen. Pete Domenici’s office were in town to meet with local residents and officials yesterday. The topic: the Southwest Water Planning Group. Comprised of eighteen governments and quasi-governmental agencies in the four counties in southwest New Mexico, the planning group was established to decide what to do with 14,000 acre-feet of water granted [...]

From MSNBC: Switzerland – Sometimes, global warming can help put money in your pocket. Hansruedi Burgener has welcomed up to 800 people a day — twice the average number of visitors — to his remote mountain hostel in the Alps this summer. They all hope to watch a rock the size of two Empire State [...]

John Fleck is still my go to guy for climate and weather stuff, and his article in yesterday’s Journal is a must read: So is the drought over? That was probably the most-asked question in New Mexico last week, as long-awaited rains hit the state with so much force that floodwaters damaged neighborhoods from Rio [...]

Well, we’ve been clamoring for rain for the last 6 months now, and we finally got some here in SW New Mexico this week. I woke up yesterday to the sound of raindrops falling on the roof, and I thought to myself, “Here we go again.” Fortunately, we weren’t hit as hard as on Tuesday [...]

Motorists at the intersection of U.S. 180 and Pinos Altos Road navigate rain runoff Friday night in Silver City. This was the second heavy rain the area has seen this week, and some residents in Grant County were forced to evacuate their homes as a result. There’ll be more pictures in the Daily Press tomorrow. [...]

New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman yesterday voted for an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act, which would have prioritized projects for the Army Corps of Engineers (yes, that Army Corps of Engineers). The act authorizes billions of dollars for projects across the country. Unfortunately, most of the money is never spent, because the Corps’ [...]

Or are they? There are forecasters in the National Weather Service’s Albuquerque office who have never seen a really juicy monsoon. You know the kind— towering late-afternoon knots of summertime purple over the mountains that roll down and cleanse the Rio Grande Valley, day after day. The last time summer gave us that kind of [...]

Via Headwaters News I came across this must-read article on population growth and water demand along the Rio Grande basin. Staci Matlock writes today in the Santa Fe New Mexican: Cities in the basin that splits New Mexico lengthwise are growing at an unprecedented rate and with it their need for water. Their demands compete [...]

Well, I had a post earlier on groundwater in the Silver City area. John Fleck, who requested a post about mining (I’m working on it) has the goods on river and reservoir levels throughout the state: Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico’s largest, was at 38 percent of average March 1. This is a reminder of [...]

I attended an interesting meeting last night, concerning Silver City’s 40-year water plan. I say interesting, but I should say fascinating. Hydrology is an incredibly complex field of study. Yet, in two hours time, I had a basic grasp of several aspects of the aquifer system that supplies water for Silver City. You can find [...]