Lake Mead Low Water Levels: Overuse, Not Climate Change

August 24th, 2022 by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.
UPDATED: Fixed Bureau of Reclamation study link, added Colorado River basin snowpack graph and discussion.

In today’s news is yet another article claiming the record-low water levels in Lake Mead (a manmade water reservoir) are due to human-caused climate change. In fact, to make the problem even more sinister, the Mafia is also part of the story:

Climate change is uncovering gruesome mafia secrets in this Las Vegas lake

While it is true that recent years have seen somewhat less water available from the Colorado River basin watershed (which supplies 97% of Lake Mead’s water), this is after years of above-average water inflow from mountain snowpack. Those decadal time-scale changes are mostly the result of stronger El Nino years (more mountain snows) giving way to stronger La Nina years (less snow).

The result is record-low water levels:

Lake Mead water levels since the construction of Hoover Dam (source: NBC News)

But the real problem isn’t natural water availability. It’s water use.

The following graph shows the fundamental problem (click for full resolution). Since approximately 2000, water use by 25 million people (who like to live in a semi-desert area where the sun shines almost every day) has increased to the point that more water is now being taken out of the Lake Mead reservoir than nature can re-supply it.

This figure is from a detailed study by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. As long as that blue line (water supply) stayed above the red line (water use), there was more than enough water to please everyone.

But now, excessive demand for water means Lake Mead water levels will probably continue to decline unless water use is restricted in some way. The study’s projection for the future in the above figure, which includes climate model projections, shows little future change in water supply compared to natural variability over the last century.

The real problem is that too much water is being taken out of the reservoir.

As long as the red line stays above the blue line, Lake Mead water levels will continue to fall.

But to blame this on climate change, whether natural or anthropogenic, ignores the thirsty elephant in the room.

UPDATE: Since it was pointed out in comments (below) that the latest Bureau of Reclamation study is rather dated (2012), and supposedly the drought has worsened since then, here’s a plot of the Colorado River basin April (peak month) snowpack, which provides about 50% of the water to Lake Mead. The rest is provided in the non-mountainous areas of the river basin, which should be highly correlated with the mountainous regions. I see no evidence for reduced snowpack due to “climate change”… maybe the recent drought conditions are where the demand by 25 million water consumers originates from, causing higher demand?

April snowpack in the Colorado River basin, the greatest source of water input to Lake Mead (data from https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/WCIS/AWS_PLOTS/basinCharts/POR/WTEQ/assocHUCco_8/colorado_headwaters.html)

 


106 Responses to “Lake Mead Low Water Levels: Overuse, Not Climate Change”

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  1. Nate says:

    So overuse is inconsequential up until the year 2000, then kicks in with a vengeance?

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      • Hans Erren says:

        Don’t believe everything that is written on the internet. (Abraham Lincoln)

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      • Wei Zhang says:

        Clearly, a substantial, long-term drought has settled onto the SW USA since about 2000. No reason to think that is due to “climate change”. All the other USA regions are normal and drought freq has generally been steady or lower worldwide. The headwaters in Colorado have not been in the persistent drought zone.

        Combine drought with rapid population increase and you have low water. The rains will almost certainly return so this is just a water management issue.

        The trend was higher 1937-2000.

        The same complaints were made about the Great Lakes circa 2013. Permanent ‘climate change’ drought, record low water, etc, blah blah blah. Then by 2019, levels were near record highs.

        Deserts get hot and dry. Duh. They have a higher standard deviation of rainfall.

    • Nate says:

      “The water inflow into the Colorado River has been below average for 13 out of the past 16 years, with average water inflow since 2000 just 79 percent of the previous 30-year average. The period 2000-2015 had the lowest water availability of any 16-year period in the last 60 years.”

      Article from 2016

      https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/drought.htm

      • Roy W Spencer says:

        what matters is the actual numbers, Nate. Those claims hide the fact that the real problem is overuse. I hope to soon demonstrate that even if 2000-2015 had averaged normal water inflow, Lake Mead would still be dropping. You do understand the chart in the post, don’t you?

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      • Privatepilot says:

        Wow! Id have to take a pay cut if I had your job!

      • Nate says:

        “what matters is the actual numbers, Nate. ”

        I agree, but you should not ignore the main confounding variable, which is the persistent drought since 2000, as well as the higher T leading to greater evaporation.

      • stephen p. anderson says:

        The West historically has had droughts, for millions of years. In the 1930’s the drought was called the Dust Bowl. It was so bad it sent dust clouds as far as New York City. John Steinbeck captured it well in The Grapes of Wrath. If Nevada and California want to solve their water problems then they do what Israel did.

      • Willard says:

        > the Dust Bowl

        Poor land use practices might not be 100% natural:

        https://climateball.net/but-this-odd-place#dust-bowl

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      • John Hultquist says:

        This is a better book if you want history:
        The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

      • John Doran says:

        How can they steal Syria’s water in the Golan Heights?

      • John Hultquist says:

        Link to a good history book:
        The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

      • Ric Werme says:

        Decade long droughts are nothing new there.

        And, why should we (readers here) pay attention to them given that most of the people living there moving there appear have not given them a second chance?

        From 2016 (really from 2011). People have had plenty of time to prepare.

        https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/10/11/claim-megadrought-risks-in-southwest-soar-as-atmosphere-warms-based-on-model-ignores-records/

      • Fred M. Cain says:

        Nate,

        Please refer to my comments at the end of the comments thread in part II of Dr. Roy’s Lake Mead article.

        I tried to point out that the 20-year precipitation average for Arizona is below normal but really not much below normal. It is probably not enough below normal to cause Lake Mead to dry up.

        I tried to use Arizona as a representative state. I did not look at other states, but I would imagine the results are at least similar.

      • Fred M. Cain says:

        P.S. This is where I’ve been getting my precipitation information from if anyone is interested.

        https://wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?az8815

      • dk_ says:

        The record is less than 90 years old. With weather cycles and patterns varying on 70-150 year cycles, and the emphasis on electrical power generation to shore up California’s production shortfall, the official average of engineered dam release is meaningless.
        Lake levels were nearly restored to nominal this past winter, and for a good portion of the last year https://lakemead.water-data.com/ (duplicate of Roy’s ref graph, above). The New Mexico crossfeed to the Rio Grande, finished around 40 years ago, is down to a trickle for the first time – another ‘record’. Winter snowfall was not great, but good in December https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/Soilmst_Monitoring/Figures/global/rank_p.202112.gif. If dam rainfall had been used to determine electrical production budget, Mead would be okay.

    • Roy W Spencer says:

      When water supply exceeds usage, whe water level in Lake Mead is controlled through releases downstream. It is only when usage exceeds supply that a problem exists. So, yes, almost by definition, overuse does not become a problem until usage exceeds supply.

      • e. Swanson says:

        Roy, Water allocation from the Colorado River has been a problem for decades. Decades ago when I lived in California, I recall learning a bit about the process. It seems that the interested parties, including Mexico, signed an agreement to allocate the flow, but the allocations were based on a series of relatively wet years in the early 20th century, as shown in your Figure 2.

        When more “normal” precipitation upstream returned, the problem became acute. Agriculture is a major consumer of the water and the fight between cities and farms for that water continues. Also, as I recall, a treaty with Mexico requires a certain level of flow, which means that any shortfall tends to hit U.S. consumers harder as they argue over who gets what.

        Just another of many environmental problems which seem unending. Then add the possible impacts of Climate Change to the mix and population growth, which is happening everywhere.

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  2. Timothy John Folkerts says:

    That graph apparently comes from this report from 2012:
    https://www.usbr.gov/watersmart/bsp/docs/finalreport/ColoradoRiver/CRBS_Executive_Summary_FINAL.pdf

    Drawing conclusions from data that is 10 years out of date seems odd, especially given that the past decade has had a prolonged drought in the Southwest. The projection was for a return toward the long-term mean, but that is not what has happened.

    I can’t find data easily, but I suspect the ‘blue line’ for supply has dropped over the past decade toward 10 million acre-ft, rather than rising back toward 15 million acre-ft.

    So, yes, the demand is ultimately the problem, but the lack of supply (ie climate change) has moved that timeline up by a decade or two.

    • See my post update with CO River basin snowpack through 2020.

    • Wei Zhang says:

      “…but the lack of supply (ie climate change)”.

      Why assume “lack of supply” has anything to do with “climate change”. Drought happens with or without increased greenhouse gases. There is no evidence that droughts are increasing globally or that “climate change” is the cause. Droughts come and droughts go. They operate on different timescales…. month long droughts, one year droughts, multi-year droughts, decadal droughts, 100 year droughts. The paleo records show this clearly in hundreds of studies.

      Drought suck. Just because you have one says nothing about “climate change”

      • Calvin says:

        I agree! During the ice age , the earth became warmer due to atmospheric conditions and realignment of the earth. No cars and factories then burning fossil fuel

  3. Willard says:

    > This figure is from a detailed study

    Wrong link under “study”:

    https://www.drroyspencer.com/2022/08/lake-mead-low-water-levels-overuse-not-climate-change/_wp_link_placeholder

    Here is a more recent one:

    https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/lakemead_line.pdf

    *** I added the proper link. It is the most recent one available that shows actual supply and demand for Lake Mead. (Your water level link is just the net result of supply and demand, which does not answer “why?”. -Roy)

  4. Thom says:

    It would stand to reason that use would have a major effect on the water level. The populations of California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico have increased by 185% since 1960, and that doesn’t take into account industry and tourism. Even if you buy climate change as the cause, green energy rather than desalination will not be a successful way to get yourself out of the situation for generations to come.

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  5. Tim S says:

    There are studies that show the last 100 years have been unusually wet on the west coast. Does this apply to the Rockies? Are we returning to normal?

    • Roy W Spencer says:

      yes, paleo precip data suggests that last century was wet compared to the last 1,000 years. So, maybe returning to normal. Who knows? But never let a crisis go to waste…

  6. gbaikie says:

    If Africa greens Sahara desert, then they will have same problem
    as California- they will grow a huge amount of food, and the politicians will become very corrupt and dumber than bricks.
    In California, there is a religion against building dam {and doing something to remove the build up sediment that dams cause- or given enough time the amount of water a dam can hold, decreases].
    Recently the government has discovered it’s very important to act quickly to stop forest fires. And this “new idea” seems to be working.
    Anyways with California, it doesn’t rain, but it pours.
    So nature gives dried rivers, and rivers overflowed.
    And with “vast wisdom” dam were created.
    And time passes and nature lovers want rivers not to dry up, or they have “forgotten” that they live in desert, that doesn’t rain, but pours.
    One advantage of ocean settlements which I didn’t fully realized- though I always thought ocean settlements should have freshwater lakes- is they should help with the problem of always having dumber than brick politicians.
    Of course my fetish with having lakes in the ocean is related to my idea that you “need” lakes on Mars to encourage mars settlement [or increase land real estate value on Mars}.
    But right now, I am wondering about political usefulness of African
    importing water to make the Sahara desert, grassland and forests, and etc.
    Now, what is American [and actually inherent everywhere] is it’s a bad idea to be dependent on “foreigners”. This of course wise, if by foreigners you mean foreign govts. But it’s also just you just should not dependent any politician [local or not]. But competitive market could be different issue.
    Of course China is a totalitarian State [which has private market presently fleeing from it] And this State is murdering Americans with fentanyl [which not drug problem, but rather a poison problem}.
    So you don’t want to be dependent on totalitarian state to get water to Sahara desert, but that is different than a Free Market.

    • gbaikie says:

      If we ever profitably mine ocean methane hydrates, then we should be
      able to cheaply remove dam sediments.
      Now, getting my dose of Scott Admans
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trav8bW4p3c

      He says there is only 100 people in the world.
      [this is obviously due to nutty religious view, but in terms
      anthropology, he should have 500 people, because 500 people is level
      of pop in which people can “handle”, but since we can’t handle it,
      then maybe 1000 or 2000 people- if you “follow the science”. Of course “following the science” has been shown to be a very bad idea.
      Anyhow, we don’t live in reality of 100 or 2000 people.
      Is there 100 or 2000 types of cats [or dogs? or monkeys? or white lab mice?}?
      There is one god. We know very little about the one God.
      One could guess God is somehow related to infinity. And I personally
      believe in many infinities. God is many infinities or maybe a type of infinity, but I agree with Captain Kirk, why would God need a Starship. I also believe in gods. Or angels or gods, what exactly is the difference? And how many angels or gods can dance on a pin.
      God doesn’t ever dance on a pin. Though he/she/it/whatever may dance a lot. Humans are not God nor gods. One can say there is connection between gods and God, and their connection of Humans to gods, God, and all life. Humans connected to everything and nothing- though one argue that nothing actually doesn’t “exist”. Or one could imagine the only shortage of anything is nothingness- but such things are like counting angels on a pin- good luck trying, and what number do you get?
      Heaven is up. And I guess, gravity is down.
      And are humans a high gravity or low gravity creatures.
      It could be that fish, are what? High gravity or low gravity.
      How do fish do, if they are on Mars?
      Humans don’t know much. There are many important things we don’t know about.

      • Ireneusz Palmowski says:

        In California, the best way to store water is underground, in tanks and rocks. Then water losses will be the least. Rivers should not be straightened, but have natural meanders. It is necessary to retain water below the surface.

      • gbaikie says:

        Here in desert, we have pits, where the rain water which flood everything is put in. And this recharges the vast aquifer. Which is used a lot.
        But we close aqueduct which feeds LA, and city water is from that.
        But beyond city limits or farming could use wells.
        And greywater is used- they do, ok.

  7. Brandon R. Gates says:

    Footnote of Figure 2 says water demand includes losses due to reservoir evaporation. IMO, that amount really should be charged to supply.

    Increased demand is absolutely certain to be mainly driven by population/economic growth. But I think there’s a component of demand driven by less local water availability in drought-stricken regions that is attributable to climate change.

    I need to read more about this to say any more about it.

    • Swenson says:

      Brandon,

      Climate is the average of what has already happened. It’s a consequence, not a cause.

      Weather patterns change – unpredictably. A prolonged drought in the 13th century probably resulted in the demise of the Anasazi civilization (along with others) in the south west US. I suppose some climate cultists would claim that these pre-Colombian climatic changes were due to fossil fuel use, emissions, or some similar nonsense.

      Only if the present can affect the past – just like Mann and Co removing inconveniences like the LIA from history.

      As to Lake Mead, Dr Spencer is just pointing out the obvious.

      However, don’t be glum. The Bureau of Reclamation is positive that levels will not drop below 950 ft, so power generation will continue unabated. This happy prediction is no doubt based on peering into a sphere constructed of the finest crystal, polished to a tolerance of mere molecules by the finest technology. Or, possibly, by using a consensus of the world’s finest climate models, operated by the world’s foremost climate modellers.

      Hopefully, Nature will be suitably impressed, and provide sufficient extra precipitation to fulfill the needs of the people who demand the right to use as much water as they want, where they want, and when they want!

      Obviously, the Government needs to pass a law, if Nature fails to comply with the wishes of the people.

      Potential problem solved (or at least ignored for the present). Have fun.

      • Brandon R. Gates says:

        > Climate is the average of what has already happened. Its a consequence, not a cause.

        Indeed Mike, however it would be a bit tedious to say, “attributable to rising GHG levels due to human activities which increasingly retain absorbed solar energy, which in turn affects the various statistics of weather” just to satisfy your pedantry.

      • Swenson says:

        Brandon,

        And what particular effect on weather parameters can be attributed to CO2?

        Don’t try to look even more brain dead than you are.

        Some people are even stupid enough to believe that CO2 affects surface temperature by increasing it! Surface temperatures on Earth vary between about -90 C, and 90 C. According to dimwits like Gavin Schmidt (self proclaimed “climate scientist’), CO2 is well mixed in the atmosphere.

        It certainly seems that CO2 concentration has no particular relationship to increased temperature!

        Of course, given that the most important GHG is supposedly H2O, the highest surface temperatures occur where the GHGs are least – arid deserts like the Lut desert, for example. Odd, isn’t it?

        Your fantasy does not seem to be supported by either observation or experiment, so I don’t blame you for resorting to obfuscation and apparent puerile attempts at being gratuitously offensive. Typical cultist fanaticism on display.

        You might achieve more by trotting out a few facts, but you don’t seem to have any!

      • Brandon R. Gates says:

        > And what particular effect on weather parameters can be attributed to CO2?

        You need new material, Mike.

    • macias says:

      Drought is clearly a temperature driver in heat waves.
      Evaporation over Lake Mead(640km) is No. 1 consumer with ~ 1km/y
      of water – cooling the region with ~650TWh/y.
      Swimming PV panels could reduce this lake evaporation(1-1,5m/m*y) and transfer the water & evaporation towards agriculture.

      Globally antrophogenic land use changes during the last 2000 years have declined evaporation over an accumulated land area of ~ 50 Mio. km by a volume of ~6000-12000km/y. That is 9-18% of all evaporation in a GEB for land and can explain a reduced cloud cover of 2-3% during the past decades and ~50% of observed AGW.

      http://climateprotectionhardware.wordpress.com

  8. Roy W Spencer says:

    I had the same impression about evaporation.

    • roaddog says:

      Evaporation that occurs due to long-distance, canal-transport of Colorado river water in man-made canals is clearly a human influence, which has utterly no relation to climate.

  9. Anne says:

    Hallo

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  10. Anne says:

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  11. Ireneusz Palmowski says:

    Southeast China will be inundated by a typhoon in the coming days. La Nina is active in many areas of the Earth.
    https://i.ibb.co/JH83YDj/Zrzut-ekranu-2022-08-25-100858.png

  12. Ireneusz Palmowski says:

    In California, the best way to store water is underground, in tanks and rocks. Then water losses will be the least. Rivers should not be straightened, but have natural meanders. It is necessary to retain water below the surface.

  13. Ireneusz Palmowski says:

    Many civilizations in the Americas have collapsed, due to years of changes in circulation. See the Sun.
    http://wso.stanford.edu/gifs/Dipall.gif

  14. Ireneusz Palmowski says:

    Will La Nina come to an end this year? Not necessarily.
    http://www.bom.gov.au/archive/oceanography/ocean_anals/IDYOC007/IDYOC007.202208.gif

  15. RLH says:

    I predict it will be ‘gone’ by April 2023. Probably.

  16. Bindidon says:

    No one predicts anything on this blog.

    We all look at what others predict, for example

    https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/CFSv2/imagesInd3/nino34Mon.gif

    or

    https://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/elnino/elmonout.html#fig2

    Anything else is boasting blah blah, like the ball-on-a-string.

    • RLH says:

      I predict La Nina will be gone by April 2023. Probably.

      • Gordon Robertson says:

        What?? Are we having a La Nina? Thought it was climate change. Well, that explains the flooding, the droughts, and heat waves, not to mention the cooling the past 6 years.

  17. gbaikie says:

    August 25, 2022
    Canada takes giant leap toward Room 101 in the Ministry of Love
    By Olivia Murray

    In a report released by The Counter Signal, Justin Trudeau and his political allies are paving the way for a militarized climate force. Leaked architectural blueprints of a massive new facility lay bare a dystopian future.

    The new “Ministry of Environment & Climate Change Canada” building in Winnipeg is projected to be over 50,000 square feet and will designate some of the space to “firearms storage.” It will also contain interrogation and intelligence rooms, laboratories, and “controlled quiet” rooms. According to a job posting online, the ministry is looking for “enforcement officers,” and conditions of employment include an applicant’s willingness to “wear departmental uniform, body armour [sic], and officer safety equipment, including restricted weapons [emphasis added].”

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/canada_takes_giant_leap_towards_room_101_in_the_ministry_of_love.html

    • Nate says:

      Gullibility is on the rise..

    • RLH says:

      Those sound like the requirement’s for equipping Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Are you sure they are not for them?

    • Nate says:

      When laws you dont like are being enforced or when people you like are being brought to justice, it is called dystopian.

      • Ken says:

        Dystopian – relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice.

        Canada Charter Rights preamble: Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:

        I would suggest dystopia is about unjust laws that don’t recognize the supremacy of God.

        People used to like freedom.

      • RLH says:

        “unjust laws that don’t recognize the supremacy of God”

        Which God is that and why is (s)he so important?

      • gbaikie says:

        What you don’t want is North Korea, in which the Dear Leader is God.
        This is not as strange is it appears- rather it’s almost normal.
        Statues and huge pictures of the Dear Leaders, common in modern times and in ancient times. Ancient Rome, rulers were gods.
        And then rome felled apart by not having it’s people educated and they had to use religious people to operate govt- they could read and count, Hence why the fall of Rome was blame on christians and/or their Church [which became the State Religon. Of course this same State religion as a Pope which many poorly educated Catholic, worship the Pope as some kind of God. Of course the religion has just 10 rules which are said to be from God, Or God doesn’t keep adding new rules, there is the Ten Commandments- which are shared by quite a few different religions. But Popes tend to want to add other things to be obeyed- due to them being power corrupted morons.

      • Ken says:

        The one that identifies with Judeo-Christian theology.

        Why is it important? Because our legal system is based on principles of justice and compassion that are found in Judeo-Christian philosophy and tradition.

        These laws are founded on the self-evident supremacy of God which does not recognize anyone’s right to rule over everyone else except by mutual consent. Hence you don’t get dystopian laws without eventually provoking a revolt.

      • Gordon Robertson says:

        gb…”What you dont want is North Korea, in which the Dear Leader is God”.

        ***

        You mean that fat SOB???

      • Nate says:

        “Because our legal system is based on principles of justice and compassion that are found in Judeo-Christian philosophy and tradition.”

        Based on, but not beholden to so much that we have the Christian equivalent of Sharia Law.

        Today’s Christian Right has inferred that all sorts of things are in the Bible that arent actually in there, in many cases not consistent with justice and compassion.

        -that a just conceived embryo is a person.

        -that gay marriage is not allowed.

        -that non-white or non-Christian refugees should be rejected.

      • Gordon Robertson says:

        Do you mean like when the Canadian Prime Minister used a never-used war measures act to control an imagined insurrection by peacefully protesting truckers? Or when he shut down bank accounts of anyone who contributed to the truckers?

        The irony is the PM claiming the truckers were Nazis when he was the one behaving like a Nazi.

  18. ItsMe says:

    A potentially-useful link for the mix:

    https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/water-budget.htm

  19. ItsMe says:

    Another one:

    http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/2014/06/arizona-water-managers-warn-lake-mead-could-be-sorta-unusable-in-five-to-eight-years/

    From the citation:

    “The problem is not drought, though drought makes it harder to dig out of the hole now being created. Rather, it is a structural deficit, according to the presentation by the CAPs Tom McCann and Chuck Collum. The Lower Colorado River Basins full legally required allotment each year from the Upper Basin 8.23 million acre feet is not enough to meet all the Lower Basins water needs. Only with periodic infusions of what Ive been calling bonus water extra water during unusually wet years can the Lower Basin make ends meet.”

  20. Ken says:

    Does the Colorado River Basin get major events like California 1862 atmospheric river?

    https://www.earthdate.org/episodes/californias-super-flood

  21. John Hultquist says:

    Roy,
    your text has: “little of the water falling on lower elevations tends to be used by local vegetation ”

    It appears you meant “little of the water reaches the river because it is used by local vegetation.”

    Sorry, if I’m wrong and this is an irritant.
    John H.

  22. Gordon Robertson says:

    tim…”The shortage is BOTH overuse AND climate change”.

    ***

    Where’s your evidence that climate change is occurring in the region? The data states otherwise. Drought has always been a problem.

    Furthermore, developers from Las Vegas are building communities on the lake. They are using this source of potable water for boating and recreation. They are dumping treated sewage in the lake. And how many swimming pools are being filled by the water?

    https://www.lakehomes.com/nevada

    “Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the U.S. in water capacity at full pool, and is the 16th largest man-made lake the world. This lake is located just 24 miles from downtown Las Vegas and has property types from condos, to townhomes, to two-story houses, and even a few apartments. There are also four marinas and a few casual public landing sites on the lake”.

  23. Russ says:

    I just have a question for everybody out there. They say Greenland is going to lose 3 % of it’s ice coverage by 2100 and raise the ocean by a foot. They know this!!! However I see no short term projections of what the Tonga honga volcano is going to do to weather for the next 3-10 years. How can they know 80 years in the future but nothing current? Meteorologists and economists have great jobs that have no accountability.

    • Gordon Robertson says:

      russ…”They know this!!!”

      ***

      No one knows that. It’s all guess-work done on unvalidated climate models.

    • barry says:

      “I see no short term projections of what the Tonga honga volcano is going to do to weather for the next 3-10 years.”

      No one can predict weather with any success beyond about 2 weeks.

      Did you mean ‘global climate’, which is what is being projected re Greenland ice contribution to global sea level change?

      If so:

      https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022GL099381

      That is a qualified prediction about the effect of the eruption on stratospheric water vapour and global surface temperatures over the next 5-10 years.

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  27. Steve says:

    Roy, has this plot been updated through 2022 or do you know current supply/demand values to check trends?

  28. DAN JAMES says:

    SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STOLE WATER FROM OWENS LAKE AND SUCKED IT DRY. NOW THEY’RE DOING THE SAME THING TO THE COLORADO RIVER.