Lake Mead Reaches Historic Low Point

The water level in Lake Mead, the huge reservoir that fills the taps of millions of people across the Southwest, has reached a record low, the federal Bureau of Reclamation says.

Even as thunderstorms dropped rain on the Las Vegas area, Lake Mead’s level dropped to 1,083.18 feet above sea level just before noon on Sunday, and fell farther, to 1,083.09 feet, by Monday morning. Lake Mead is still eight feet above the level at which rationing could go into consequence in Nevada and Arizona, and well above the levels at which Hoover Dam’s hydroelectric output might be critically jeopardized. But Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said: “This strikes me as such an amazing instant. It’s three-quarters of a century since they filled it, and at the three-quarter-century mark, the world has changed.”