Drought expands in the Southwest, worsening the region's fire risk and water crisis







At Lake Powell, water recedes near Lone Rock Beach, a popular recreational area that used to be underwater, on April 20.


Drought conditions worsened in much of the Southwest over the past week, according to the latest update from the US Drought Monitor, deepening the region's water crisis and fueling record-setting wildfires across multiple states.

More than 98% of the Southwest is in drought this week, according to the monitor, which noted that reservoir storage levels were below-normal in all Western states except for Washington.

In California, which is entirely in drought conditions, two of the state's largest reservoirs — Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville — are at "critically low levels," according to the monitor.


The state depends on wintertime precipitation to build up snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which then gradually melts during the spring and replenishes reservoirs. But the water content in the state's snowpack this year was just 4% of normal by the end of winter.

In Southern California, water district officials announced water restrictions last week, demanding businesses and residents in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties to cut outdoor watering to one day a week beginning June 1.

[size=15][size=16]"This is a crisis. This is unprecedented," said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "We have never done anything like this before and because we haven't seen this situation happen like this before, we don't have enough water to meet normal demands for the six million people living in the State Water Project dependent areas."


The drought-fueled water crisis isn't limited to California. In the Rio Grande Basin, the Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico is roughly 13% full. In the Colorado River Basin, Lake Powell was at 24% of capacity, while Lake Mead was at 31%, according to US Bureau of Reclamation.
On Tuesday, the federal government announced it is taking unprecedented, emergency steps to help boost water levels at Lake Powell, which supplies water to millions of people and generates power for as many as 5.8 million homes and businesses in seven states. Meanwhile, in Lake Mead, the water level is so low that it exposed not only one of the reservoir's original water intake valves for the first time but also a body in a barrel.[/size][/size]

[size=16]Earlier in March, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted drought conditions would expand eastward this spring and worsen in some locations — conditions that are now priming much of the Southern landscape for dangerous, fast-moving fires. The agency wrote two months ago that "prolonged, persistent drought in the West where below-average precipitation is most likely," which is what it's shaping up to be this spring.[/size]

Ở đây mưa từ hôm qua và nguyên ngày hôm nay luôn!

ga10 wrote:Ở đây mưa từ hôm qua và nguyên ngày hôm nay luôn!

2 tiểu bang north của CA thì mưa tầm tả, mưa suốt ngày , on and off