It is no surprise that Lake Mead ended the “water year” Sept. 30 at the lowest level it’s been since the government began filling it in the 1930s. Perhaps more importantly, combined storage in the two big reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, ended the water year at its lowest level since 1968, when they first began filling Powell. I don’t know that we need to freak out here. This is what reservoirs are for, right? Fill ’em up when it’s raining, use the water when it’s not?

• Data source: USBR 24-month study (pdf)
• My transcribed version of the data set, assembled from various sources to get it back to the dawn of time and including the 2015 forecast, is here.