Lack-of-water world

Two articles underscore and emphasize the current worsening drought conditions in the Southwest.

Now, let's put this in perspective.  IF rainfall returns to semi-normal soon, then this could be just a blip on the climate screen.  But it's getting bad enough to be exceeding the bounds of blipness, to the point that it might be verging on signalhood.  I.e., a signal that something is really changing. 

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First, from the LA Times:  New Mexico, driest of the dry

The statistics are sobering: All of New Mexico is officially in a drought, and three-quarters of it is categorized as severe or exceptional. Reservoir storage statewide is 17% of normal, lowest in the West. Residents of some towns subsist on trucked-in water, and others are drilling deep wells costing $100,000 or more to sink and still more to operate.

Wildlife managers are hauling water to elk herds in the mountains and blaming the drought for the unusually high number of deer and antelope killed on New Mexico's highways, surmising that the animals are taking greater risks to find water. ...

The last three years have been the driest and warmest since record-keeping began here in 1895. Chuck Jones, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, said even the state's recent above-average monsoon rains "won't make a dent" in the drought; deficits will require several years of normal rainfall to erase, should normal rain ever arrive.

Much of the rest of the article is devoted to the loss of the indigenous grass, which could lead to irreversible desertification.

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Second, from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:  Las Vegas water chief seeks disaster aid for Colorado River drought

The Las Vegas Valley depends on the river for 90 percent of its drinking water supply. That water is drawn from Lake Mead using two intake pipes that could stop working if the reservoir drops far enough.

The surface of Lake Mead already has fallen more than 100 feet since the current drought descended on the Colorado River in 2000.

But even in an average year, the river does not carry enough water to fill the allocations parceled out decades ago to the seven states and Mexico.

The expected cut to Lake Powell’s release for the coming year creates a 1.5 million acre-foot math problem for Mead, which is supposed to deliver 9 million acre-feet of water each year to Nevada, Arizona, California and Mexico.

Bottom line:  this all is adding up to an indication of a major problem.  Is something really changing here?  Well, we know climate is changing; this may be one place where we're seeing the effects.  And even if it's in the range of natural variability, it's on the bad side of that range, and with many more people living out West due to the cleverness of the water managers, they will be in trouble if the water managers run out of tricks.

Lake Mead's 'bathtub ring' due to lowering water levels