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Lake Mead Could Dry Up by 2021
Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwestern United States, could go dry by 2021, a new study finds...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080212/sc_livescience/lakemeadcoulddryupby2021 (http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080212/sc_livescience/lakemeadcoulddryupby2021)

I'll go as far as to say I'll wager any reasonable amount of money they are wrong. Lake Mead is fed by the Colorado River which drains 242,900 sq mi  and moves as much as 1,000,000 cubic feet of water per second. This is the river that cut the Grand Canyon over million and million of years and it's going to dry up in the next 13 years ... right.

It's already at 50% capacity.  Since neither of us lives in the southwest, yeh, let's bet on it. 

Name the amount, I'm just not a doomsdayer and rarely listen to "experts" they're more often wrong than right. Right now we're having record cold, record snow falls, and a colder than normal winter ... never fear they'll blame it on Global Warming and if it was the 180 degree opposite with a warm winter, and no snow they'd blame ... global warming and if it was an perfectly average year, they'd blame global warming and as long as there are fountains in Las Vegas there will be water in Lake Mead.

I almost mentioned the fountains in Vegas... who cares if much of the much needed water evaporates?  They're pretty. 
And we're not having record cold in NJ, though the last two days were bitter cold and snow & ice... it's been incredibly mild all winter.  I don't necessarily adhere to a belief that all these so-called experts are right, but I don't understand stubborn reactionaryism. 

 It wouldn't surprise me if Lake Mead does dry up in the foreseeable future. We have been experiencing drought conditions for several years, and the snowfall in the Rockies hasn't been sufficient to keep up with the overdevelopment in the Vegas Valley. Right now, talks are underway about running a pipeline from White Pine county down to Southern Nevada to take care of some of the water needs. Every single homeowner in my neighborhood has removed their grass and gone the xeriscape route. Water restrictions are in effect here, casinos apparently being the exception. If you want to see some interesting photo's that illustrate how bad it is, google "St Thomas", a town near Overton, Nv. I used to fish over it. I'm not a doomsayer either, I'm pointing out how bad it has gotten here. I'm not complaining, I love the desert I'm in more than any place on earth, but lets hope that between the big housing bubble pop, and draining water supplies, maybe developers will crawl back where they came from.

Eyesore is correct.  I just moved away from the Vegas area (not due to water shortage, mind you).  Lake Mead is a huge concern.  If you go out there, you can see what look like docks hanging off a mountain with the lake far below.  It's then you get a graphic sense of where the water level used to be.

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/04/03/us/04drought-600.jpg)

I would bet against it going totally dry in 13 years, though.  The reason Mead has gone low is because of a decade long drought in Colorado.  Mead is fed by the Colorado River, the Colorado River is fed by melting snow, and the snowfall in the Rockies has been below average for a while.  If the cycle changes and the Rockies have several years of average or above average snowfall, the water level should go back up.

By the way, I miss Vegas and the Mojave.

Interesting ... seems like a cycle.

Lake Mead Water Levels — Historical and Current

(http://www.arachnoid.com/NaturalResources/image.php?mead)
full size image here ... http://www.arachnoid.com/NaturalResources/ (http://www.arachnoid.com/NaturalResources/)

current levels
http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/hourly/mead-elv.html (http://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/hourly/mead-elv.html)

Thanks for the link!

There you go again...using real data to make a point.   :lookingup:

 :cheers: :cheers:

There are definitely cycles apparent in the water level at Lake Mead; what's changed is the overdevelopment and the demand for water. 

Well actually we don't need to worry about it, if you believe the Mayans we'll all going to change cycles in 12-21-2012 anyway as we enter the sixth world.

http://www.december212012.com/ (http://www.december212012.com/)

If Lake Mead drying up is not bad enough news, if is feared that Lake Powell, another major water source for that area, will also dry up about the same time that Lake Mead does.