The Consequences Of Drought

This is an excerpt of the June 28, 2021 episode of What's Up With Water. This year, the intensely dry conditions gripping the American West and Upper Midwest are well past the brown hills stage. Nine western states have some form of drought in nearly 90 percent of their area. More than a quarter of the region is considered to be in exceptional drought, which is the worst category in the U.S. Drought Monitor. Signs of widespread dryness are everywhere. Lakes Mead and Powell, the major reservoirs on the Colorado River, are only 35 percent full with a two-year outlook that worsened each month this spring. California officials told vineyards along the Russian River in May that the system is too depleted for irrigation. In April, in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, sailboats were lifted out of receding waters that were too shallow to float them. In the Klamath River that flows between Oregon and California, few juvenile salmon are expected to survive this season. In Arizona, the Rafael Fire, burning in the Prescott National Forest near Flagstaff, grew to 36,000 acres since it was sparked on June 18 by lightning. When water stops flowing, painful days are at hand.