Tracking Reservoir Evaporation and What It Means for Western Water Resource Management

For arid and semi-arid climates across the western United States, reservoirs are very important. They are used to manage the water resources across of these regions for agricultural and municipal uses, mitigating flooding, generating hydro-power and many more applications. Due to increasing water scarcity across the West, with a steadily growing population, it's become more important than ever to understand how much water is lost from these bodies, not only through activities mentioned above, but also due to evaporation, which is not accurately known. Dr. Katja Freidman, University of Colorado researcher, and others, are working to bring attention to this issue of quantifying evaporation from reservoirs in dry climates. They recently published a paper focused on this issue in the January publication of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Dr. Katja Freidman explains why this is an important issues for the public and for the average person. The goal of this research is to more efficiently managing water loss, especially when water is scare. Uncertainty still exists though. And for the next step for research research, For WeatherNation, I am Meteorologist Marcus Walter.