Water Level in Largest Reseviour in US Drops 150ft in 14yrs

There's no article to accompany this post, just a slide show which shows the extremely low water levels at Lake Meade. Lake Mead is the largest resevior in the US and it's water is disappearing.

What says ATS?

news.yahoo.com... ml

a reply to: lostbook

You know, just one year ago, the 5 year spell of dry weather in Texas was exploited to the max, now that Texas just recuperated 5 years of dry spell in about two months to the point that they are now flooding only shows that dry spells happen every where and they don't last.

I remember our own dry spell that lasted 3 years here in Ga. a few years ago.

Now the exploitation of dry spell in California is becoming the center stage.

I guess when California dry spell is over the exploitation of news will move to Nevada, and life goes on.

I wish I could send some of the rain we are getting their way. It has rained 16 inches here in Nebraska over the past two weeks. I remember visiting Lake Meade when I was younger and it was amazing. Now I look at the pictures and I cannot believe it is the same place.

a reply to: warpig69

It happens, I also remember when it was a fight between GA and Florida for water during the dry spell we got, it was actually amusing to see how Florida accused Ga for holding fresh water from the rivers and waterways endangering the Floridian wildlife.

I wonder how many states will be affected by Nevada dry spell.

a reply to: lostbook

I'm guessing it's a combination of increased populations relying on that water and a decrease in the amount of water going into the lake. It's bound to happen either this way or the other (water levels rising)...nothing ever stays static for long.

I mean, hell, it didn't even exist before the 1930s. The best indicator would be to examine the tributaries (mainly the Colorado River) and see if its volume has decreased. If not, it has little to do with climate and more to do with demand on the finite resource. Well, looky here...this does indicate that since the 1890s, there is a downward trend to the amount of cubic flow. I wonder if that has anything to do with diversion of water up-river, or if it's nature telling us that, like has happened before, things could dry up here.

I do find it interesting in that link that the 90s--oft cited as being a really warm period--was a period of flow increase prior to the drought that it's in now. Also, it appears that the droughts are cyclical, so there's that, too.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey
a reply to: lostbook

I'm guessing it's a combination of increased populations relying on that water and a decrease in the amount of water going into the lake. It's bound to happen either this way or the other (water levels rising)...nothing ever stays static for long.

I mean, hell, it didn't even exist before the 1930s. The best indicator would be to examine the tributaries (mainly the Colorado River) and see if its volume has decreased. If not, it has little to do with climate and more to do with demand on the finite resource. Well, looky here...this does indicate that since the 1890s, there is a downward trend to the amount of cubic flow. I wonder if that has anything to do with diversion of water up-river, or if it's nature telling us that, like has happened before, things could dry up here.

I do find it interesting in that link that the 90s--oft cited as being a really warm period--was a period of flow increase prior to the drought that it's in now. Also, it appears that the droughts are cyclical, so there's that, too.

With lake meade it depends on the snow in the Rockies. If the flow of the Colorado River is decreased do to lack of snow fall than the lake goes down. It will eventually go back up regardless of the drought. Question is how long this year they were expecting the Colorado to be around 75 percent. It wasn't the snow melt hasn't been as big as they thought it would.

a reply to: lostbook

i say : golf courses , increased population , decreased rainfall - its not rocket science

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: lostbook

You know, just one year ago, the 5 year spell of dry weather in Texas was exploited to the max, now that Texas just recuperated 5 years of dry spell in about two months to the point that they are now flooding only shows that dry spells happen every where and they don't last.

I remember our own dry spell that lasted 3 years here in Ga. a few years ago.

Now the exploitation of dry spell in California is becoming the center stage.

I guess when California dry spell is over the exploitation of news will move to Nevada, and life goes on.

The drop in the level of lake Mead has less to do with dry weather than it does too many people drawing their daily water use from it.

the way i understand it lake mead has not been at full capacity since 1983. a combonation of drought and increased population.

plus this is not the first time it has fallen that much and has fallen faster than 14 years. 115 feet in 3 years.

because it's fast, wiki can be your friend. it has fallen more in a faster time frame.

Before the filling of Lake Powell (a reservoir of similar size to Lake Mead) behind Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado River flowed largely unregulated into Lake Mead, making Mead more vulnerable to drought. From 1953 to 1956, the water level fell from 1,200 to 1,085 feet (366 to 331 m).
During the filling of Lake Powell from 1963 to 1965, the water level fell from 1,205 to 1,090 feet (367 to 332 m).[8] Multiple wet years from the 1970s to the 1990s filled both lakes to capacity, reaching a record high in the summer of 1983.[9] In these decades prior to 2000, Glen Canyon Dam frequently released more than the required 8.23 million acre feet (10.15 km3) to Lake Mead each year, allowing Lake Mead to maintain a high water level despite releasing significantly more water than it is contracted for. However, since 2000, the Colorado River has experienced persistent drought, with average or above-average conditions only occurring in five years (2005, 2008–2009, 2011 and 2014) in the first fourteen years of the 21st century. Although Glen Canyon was able to meet its required minimum release until 2014, Lake Mead has steadily declined due to the loss of the surplus water that once made up for the annual overdraft.
In June 2010, the lake was at 39 percent of its capacity,[10] and on Nov. 30, 2010 it reached 1,081.94 ft (329.78 m), setting a new record monthly low.[11] From mid May 2011 to January 22, 2012, Lake Mead's water elevation increased from 1,095.5 to 1,134.52 feet (333.91 to 345.80 m), after a heavy snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains prompted the release of an extra 3.3 million acre feet (4.1 km3) from Glen Canyon into Lake Mead.[12]
Lake Mead

it fell 115 feet in 3 years
sorry no global warming doom porn here.


ETA: i said it fell more in a faster time frame, should have said almost as much in a faster time frame.

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: lostbook

You know, just one year ago, the 5 year spell of dry weather in Texas was exploited to the max, now that Texas just recuperated 5 years of dry spell in about two months to the point that they are now flooding only shows that dry spells happen every where and they don't last.
I remember our own dry spell that lasted 3 years here in Ga. a few years ago.
Now the exploitation of dry spell in California is becoming the center stage.
I guess when California dry spell is over the exploitation of news will move to Nevada, and life goes on.

You shouldn't make light of the situation. This is the largest reservoir in the US, and the fact that it's doing this is a bit worrisome. Extreme dry spells and extreme rain downpour events were predicted by climatologists as part of the Global Warming phenomenon.

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
the way i understand it lake mead has not been at full capacity since 1983. a combonation of drought and increased population.

plus this is not the first time it has fallen that much and has fallen faster than 14 years. 115 feet in 3 years.

because it's fast, wiki can be your friend. it has fallen more in a faster time frame.

Before the filling of Lake Powell (a reservoir of similar size to Lake Mead) behind Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado River flowed largely unregulated into Lake Mead, making Mead more vulnerable to drought. From 1953 to 1956, the water level fell from 1,200 to 1,085 feet (366 to 331 m).
During the filling of Lake Powell from 1963 to 1965, the water level fell from 1,205 to 1,090 feet (367 to 332 m).[8] Multiple wet years from the 1970s to the 1990s filled both lakes to capacity, reaching a record high in the summer of 1983.[9] In these decades prior to 2000, Glen Canyon Dam frequently released more than the required 8.23 million acre feet (10.15 km3) to Lake Mead each year, allowing Lake Mead to maintain a high water level despite releasing significantly more water than it is contracted for. However, since 2000, the Colorado River has experienced persistent drought, with average or above-average conditions only occurring in five years (2005, 2008–2009, 2011 and 2014) in the first fourteen years of the 21st century. Although Glen Canyon was able to meet its required minimum release until 2014, Lake Mead has steadily declined due to the loss of the surplus water that once made up for the annual overdraft.
In June 2010, the lake was at 39 percent of its capacity,[10] and on Nov. 30, 2010 it reached 1,081.94 ft (329.78 m), setting a new record monthly low.[11] From mid May 2011 to January 22, 2012, Lake Mead's water elevation increased from 1,095.5 to 1,134.52 feet (333.91 to 345.80 m), after a heavy snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains prompted the release of an extra 3.3 million acre feet (4.1 km3) from Glen Canyon into Lake Mead.[12]
Lake Mead

it fell 115 feet in 3 years
sorry no global warming doom porn here.

ETA: i said it fell more in a faster time frame, should have said almost as much in a faster time frame.

OK. Well shut my mouth. It looks like this is nothing special. Move along...........

a reply to: lostbook

It maybe the largest but is not the only one by any means and the US have 50 states full of people with their own dry spells, drying out reservoirs, see US is a lot bigger than Nebraska and Mead.

So far dry spells comes and go, I am sure that very soon the problem with mead will fade away when snows accumulation and rain fills the lake to capacity again.

So I live a Ga we already got our lake Blackshear soo dry that Florida was complaining, guess what is over.

If that sounds light to you well you have to understand that Mead is not even close to Ga water supplies in any way or form.

a reply to: lostbook


To much rain in one area not enough in another.......sounds like something else. WOW real old school stuff here.

Simple solution to the world's water problem... graphene.

Hello! The water is in the 7 billion + people and their pets walking around. Climate change due to pollution is causing Earth changes. Water might not come back to the area for decades. There are too many people living out there depleting it. Build a desalinization plant.

a reply to: marg6043

Kansas and Nebraska fight over water all of the time also. Kansas even took NE to court for using too much water, Kansas won. This year however, I dont think they will care much.

this spring the water level is up quite a bit here just off lake Huron in the great lakes
all that extra snow and ice caused by global warming don'tchaknow
lol

I think there may be an infrastructure issue re local drought:
the water is leaking out into recently fracked up watertables because of leaky systems
we have to pay those bankers to float Nestle and their bottled water company

a reply to: frugal

a few hundred years ago the Anastazi had to leave their area in the southwest because of cyclical drought
not man made anything