NEWS: Record-low water levels in major Western reservoirs could curtail the power supply for nearly 1M homes.

What happened: Colorado River reservoir Lake Powell is 23% full (a record low for July), while Lake Mead is 27% full (and less than a foot from its all-time record low, which was set in July 2022).

The stakes: The Colorado River generates enough hydro to power roughly 700K homes. It’s getting increasingly difficult to source this electricity as 95% of the basin faces drought—conditions worsened by one of the driest winters ever documented.

The outlook: The two major reservoirs could continue to reach new record lows every day until next spring, when the snowpack melts again. But at that point, Lake Powell may not have enough water to generate any electricity.