Strange Sounds – August 17, 2021
For the first time ever, the US federal government has declared a water shortage on the Colorado River.
That’s because Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, is lower than it’s ever been. It provides water to 25 million people across Arizona, Nevada, California, and Mexico, but as of Monday it’s at just 1,067 feet above sea level – about 35% full.
The federal water-shortage declaration means that Arizona and Nevada will face mandatory water cut-backs in January. The cuts will mostly affect farmers in Arizona; the state will lose about one-fifth of the water it normally gets from the river.
“It’s very significant,” explains Brad Udall, senior water and climate scientist at Colorado State University. “It’s something that those of us in the climate community have been worried about for over a decade, based on declining flows and increasing droughts.”
Drought Monitor, which tracks such conditions across the country. Last week, 26.5% of the country was in “extreme” or “exceptional” drought.
Such droughts will probably become more common and more intense as global temperatures continue to rise in the coming decades. Rising temperatures will also reduce the snowpack that would normally replenish the Colorado River every year. That could lead to more severe water cutbacks.