The Latest Breaking News from Lake Mead

The pictures from 2000, 2021 and 2022 offer a new view into its dramatically low water levels, now at just 27% capacity

LOS ANGELES — Recent satellite images from NASA show the dramatic water loss that has occurred over the last 22 years at drought-stricken Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir and a lifeline for California, neighboring states and Mexico.

Millions of gallons of Colorado River water hurtle through the Hoover Dam every day, generating electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes.

The sun began to set but the temperature hovered around 106 degrees. I was there to document one of the latest objects to emerge from Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, serving the needs of some 20 million people in the Desert Southwest.

With the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs continuing to drop to new lows, the federal government has taken the unprecedented step of telling the seven Western states that rely on the river to find ways of drastically cutting the amount of water they take in the next two months.

LOS ANGELES — As the West endures another year of unrelenting drought worsened by climate change, the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined so low that major water cuts will be necessary next year to reduce risks of supplies reaching perilously low levels, a top federal water official said Tuesday.

Water not actually lake, however

WARNING: This article contains distressing content as water levels at Lake Mead, near Las Vegas, are dropping to new lows amid a megadrought impacting parts of the US.

WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT: Water levels at Lake Mead, near Las Vegas, US, are dropping to historical lows amid a megadrought impacting parts of America - causing long-hidden bodies believed to be connected to the mob to surface