World rivers are getting drier
Randy Mann.
JAKE PARRISH/Press
As mentioned last week, the summer of 2026 has been one of wide extremes with drought, heat, wildfires and floods across the Northern Hemisphere. The long-term lack of precipitation across many regions in the U.S., especially in the Southwest, along in other parts of the world, has led to significant drying of major rivers.
One of the major rivers in the U.S. is the Colorado River, which supplies critical water supplies to Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Southern California and parts of northern Mexico. Since 2000, a “megadrought,” combined with warming, a reduced snowpack and higher demand have been stressing rivers and lakes. Lake Powell has reached record low levels this month. It’s currently only 30 feet above the water level needed for hydropower generation to 40 million people. Another large body of water, Lake Mead, the man-made reservoir along the Nevada-Arizona border has dropped to approximately 27% of capacity.
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