drought in the US
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Lake water levels are at historic lows
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8 pictures It’s so dry at Lake Mead in the USA
Photo: AP/John Locher
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The Angels The west and southwest of the USA in particular are suffering from increasingly severe weather phenomena such as droughts, heat waves and forest fires. The Great Salt Lake in Utah is at its lowest level ever, and Lake Mead near Las Vegas has almost completely dried up.
In the midst of a severe drought, water levels at Utah’s famous Great Salt Lake have dropped to their lowest level on record. This fell below the previous lowest level of October 2021, as the US authority USGS announced. Water levels are likely to continue to fall until autumn or early winter, when the inflow of water equals or exceeds the levels that are being lost through evaporation.
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“It’s not the kind of record we like to break,” said Utah Natural Resources Authority director Joel Ferry. “Urgent action is required to help protect and preserve this critically important resource. It is clear that the lake is in trouble.”
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The largest salt lake in the western hemisphere is not only very important from an ecological point of view, but also an important economic factor for Utah. According to the state government, it generates around $1.3 billion in revenue annually through sectors such as mining, fishing and tourism.
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Lake Mead near Las Vegas is also affected by the drought. It is the largest water reservoir in the USA, was created in the 1930s as part of the Hoover Dam project and supplies 25 million people with drinking water. But because of the drought, the water level has dropped to its lowest level since 1937. According to scientists, man-made climate change is contributing to the drought in the western United States. A NASA satellite image clearly shows the extreme change in Lake Mead over the past 20 years. Scientist Brad Panovich shared the image on his Instagram page.
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Large parts of the western United States are suffering from a long drought. This leads to dramatically low water levels in rivers and important reservoirs like Lake Mead and Lake Powell. According to climate experts, there have been periods of drought in the region in history that lasted longer than 20 years; but they are getting worse because of global warming.
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