The Super El Niño Won’t Fix the West’s Water Crisis

The Colorado River, serving 40 million people, faces a crisis as Lakes Mead and Powell sit at record lows—3,519.4 ft and 1,039.6 ft—near “deadpool” thresholds that would halt downstream flow and hydropower. Although a historically strong El Niño may bring extra rain and snow to the Southwest, experts note that any uplift in Upper-Basin snowpack will be insufficient to offset the river’s long-term over-allocation and the looming expiration of the century-old water-rights compact.