Opinion: If a ton of rain falls near Lake Mead, water levels should rise, right? Not exactly, but the question speaks volumes about how we manage the Colorado River.
Joanna Allhands
Arizona Republic
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You can understand our optimism.
It hadn’t rained in Phoenix for four months. Other parts of the West were hot and dry.
Then came the big one: Hurricane Hilary.
While rainfall totals were disappointing in Phoenix, the storm did dump quite a few inches on California and Nevada.
Areas near Lake Mead got pelted, leading a bunch of folks to presume that the nation’s largest water reservoir would get a decent boost from the rainfall.
But that’s not how it works.
Lake Mead relies on snow, not rain
