Global Warming? What Global Warming! -- Plenty of Water for Fracking in the Bakken

The April 30 / May 1 blizzard in western North Dakota was one of the worst -- if not the worst -- blizzard in the history of the state for that time of year. No one recalls losing electricity for more than a couple hours in past storms in Williston; this time electricity was "down" for three to five days; it is still being brought back "up."

Global warming advocates said their models predicted more precipitation. I don't think their models predicted the precipitation would be in the form of snow that would remain in place through the summer months where it usually melts in the spring. Sounds like the beginning of another ice age to some folks.

Fifty-seven inches of snow blanketed Ryan Park in the Snowy Range [Wyoming] on April 28 when Pantle and Chad Pickett took core samples of snow drifts, measuring both the depth of the snow and the amount of water frozen within. According to their measurements that morning, the amount of water was three times higher than the 30-year average for Ryan Park, located 55 miles west of Laramie at an elevation of 8,050 feet. Five more inches of snow fell that night.

The engineer's office compares its findings to levels from past years. According to figures released Monday from the manual snow survey, the Upper North Platte Basin is 181 percent of the historical average. Automated measuring sites operated by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, meanwhile, put the number at 172 percent.

Yup, plenty of water available for fracking in the Bakken.