NCAA "March Madness": NDSU Vs San Diego -- 5:10 Central Time; Global Warming In Wyoming; More Than Enough Water In Lake Sakakawea For Fracking

NDSU loses to San Diego State. A great game.

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Global Warming Expenses In Wyoming
Wyoming will likely go over-budget on snow removal / plowing this winter. The Gillette Star & Tribune is reporting:

As of Feb. 28, WYDOT had spent $21.9 million on snow plowing. But this year's budget for snow control was $22.6 million, WYDOT said in a statement. March costs are not in yet and department officials expect them to exceed the budget’s remaining $674,000.

“Historically, March and April are our heaviest snow months, but even if there is no more snow this spring, just reopening the mountain passes will put us significantly over the budgeted amount,” WYDOT Chief Engineer Del McOmie said in the announcement.

The three passes McOmie referred to are Wyoming Highway 130 over Snowy Range Pass, Wyoming Highway 70 over Battle Pass, and U.S. 14A west of Burgess Junction over the Big Horns. WYDOT considers it impractical to keep them open during the winter, the statement said, because of heavy snowfall and light traffic. Opening the passes requires extensive plowing of more than a foot of snow.

It cost an average of $305,000 a year during the past five years to open the passes, with a high of $602,000 in 2011. Since most areas of the state have heavier-than-normal snow, this year’s cost will likely to be higher than average, WYDOT warned.

And so it goes with global warming. The warmists predicted that we would have more snow and colder weather. That was after the warmists first predicted that our grandchildren would never see snow again.

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Meanwhile ... More Than Enough Water In Lake Sakakawea For Fracking

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials say runoff into Lake Sakakawea is projected to be higher than normal, but there is ample storage in the Missouri River reservoirs to handle the water.

The corps projected earlier this month that Lake Sakakawea would peak in July at 1,845 feet. Spillway level is 1,854 feet.

The reservoir reached 1,833.69 feet early Wednesday and remained on the rise.

The lake reached the overflow point for the first time in history in 2011.

Corps officials say a repeat of that is "highly unlikely," citing a combination of heavy mountain snowpack, plains snowpack and spring rains that led to the 2011 flood.

It really is something -- the Garrison Dam was completed in 1953. The first (and only) overflow occurred in 2011 -- more than 60 years later. With all that global warming, associated droughts, loss of glaciers, etc, we would not have seen an overflow in 2011. The overflow should have occurred much earlier if it was going to occur at all. I'm probably looking at the situation incorrectly.