Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Lake Mead's Water Level Plunges as 11-Year Drought Lingers



Heightening those concerns are recent signs that the region's record-breaking, 11-year drought could wear on for another year or longer. July not only saw the lake drop to 1956 levels but also brought cooling temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that signaled a developing La Ni?a system, historically a harbinger of more hot and dry weather.The La Ni?a "appears to be strong, and it might even last two years," said Brad Udall, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Western Water Assessment program at the University of Colorado.In the 75 years since the workers began to hold back the Colorado River behind the Hoover Dam, the lake's water has taken two precipitous plunges: first during the prolonged drought of the 1950s, which ranks second only to the current dry spell, and again in the mid-1960s, when water managers began filling Mead's cousin 250 miles upstream, Lake Powell.. Pandora bracelets online shop supply pandora beads,pandora bracelets,Silver,Gold,Murano Glass.We sure you will like when you see their workmanship.

Neither dip was as severe or prolonged as that of the past decade.. Fashion accessories are decorative items that supplement one's garment, such as fashion jewellery,jewellery rings,gold jewellery,women's jewellery.You can wholesale jewellery. Nearly full in 1999,. Fashion accessories are decorative items that supplement one's garment, such as fashion jewellery, gloves and tights.Jewellery for sale here,we aupply womens accessories,jewellery rings,gold jewell Mead has shrunken to 40 percent capacity, causing the ominous, bleach-white bathtub ring on the surrounding mountainsides to grow taller by the year. In the past five months, the lake steadily shed another 15 feet, to about 1,087 feet above sea level today. Four more feet and the lake surface will hit what would be the lowest mark since 1937 -- something the government projects will happen in October. "It's a clear warning," said Tim Barnett, a scientist and Lake Mead expert at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. fashion accessories are decorative items that supplement one's garment, such as fashion jewellery, gloves and tights.Je who sounded the alarm in 2008 with the prediction that Mead had a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021.

"This is what basically the models are telling us should be happening and, by golly, there it is, right there in front of you," Barnett said. "The thing that's astounding to me is the head-in-the-sand attitude of the bureaucrats that we've talked to."

Federal water managers have the option, under certain conditions, to boost Mead's supplies by releasing water from Lake Powell -- an option that they may be forced to exercise but that amounts to little more than the water management equivalent of Whac-A-Mole.

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