It’s Not Just California: The Whole Southwest Is Experiencing a Drought
Notice California, where a lack of rainfall and record heat have pushed many reservoirs below 50 percent capacity. Farmers in California’s Central Valley have already seen cuts to water deliveries, and the governor has ordered cities to pare back water use.
But then there are those two huge red circles near Arizona: Lake Mead and Lake Powell. These gigantic reservoirs, which help supply water from the Colorado River to farms and cities throughout the Southwest, are also reaching historically low levels.
That’s a huge deal, as Eric Holthaus nicely explains at Slate. If water levels at Lake Mead keep dropping in the months ahead, Arizona could soon face a water crunch of its own.
Most notably, Lake Mead - the lake that provides over 90% of Las Vegas’ water - is reaching record lows.
Water levels at Lake Mead had already been dropping for years, as more and more users have been overdrawing its water. More recently, drought and extreme heat have been adding to the pressure. With less snow in the mountains, there’s less water flowing into Lake Powell, which in turn is delivering less water downstream to Lake Mead. Read more
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