Guess what, it's snowing today, all day. We need the moisture badly because it was a very dry winter (all the big snow pack is in the high mountains) so I say bring it on, and don't stop.



This colder weather is good, too, because it slows the melting of the 500 inches of moisture-laden snow that will flow into our rivers and eventually to the Mississippi and Colorado Rivers in the next month or so.

What water goes where is mostly determined by the continental divide, a geographical separation of the watersheds. When my family went on road trips when I was a kid my folks would say, "we crossed the divide so now the rivers will look like they are flowing backwards." And you know what, they did look that way to me. But they don't any more when I cross that divide, because now my brain adjusts for it.

I was thinking it was THE Continental Divide, the only one dividing our continent, but no, take a look at this map. There are several divides.



The one near here is the "Great Divide," marked in red. For those of you who just glance at things, it's not a river, it's more of a ridge.

That one marked by the brown line west of here is the Great Basin mostly in Nevada. Hardly anyone lives there, and US Highway 50, which traverses it is officially known as 'The Loneliest Road.' that circular shape means that water flows into that basin, but doesn't ever reach the sea. It's not swampy, though, because it's a desert over there.