ead in Nevada and Arizona has fallen to a historic low as 16 years of ongoing drought in the American Southwest continue to impact the Colorado River Basin.
Landsat imagery captures the decline of the country’s largest reservoir. In a May 1984 Landsat 5 acquisition, Lake Mead is almost full. But 32 years later, in May 2016, Landsat 8 data show the reservoir when it was 37 percent full. The drop in lake level isn’t even as apparent as it might otherwise be because of the steep topography in the region, but the surface area reduction is still quite noticeable.
Today, Lake Mead supplies water to 25 million people. Virtually all of nearby Las Vegas, NV, with its 2 million residents and 40 million tourists a year, gets its drinking water from the shrinking reservoir. Lake Mead also serves farms, tribes, and businesses in Arizona, California, Nevada, and northern Mexico.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Mead reached a historic low in May 2016 of 1,074 feet above sea level. It has not been this low since the reservoir began filling in the 1930s.
Rain-Swollen Brazos River Floods Suburban Houston June 2, 2016
Heavy rains that began falling during Memorial Day weekend in late May 2016 pushed the Brazos River, 30 miles southwest of Houston, Texas, toward a near-record flooding stage that hasn’t been seen since 1913, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Shortwave infrared and red bands on Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor reveal the river’s dramatic flooding extent on May 28, compared to two months earlier, on March 25, when the Brazos ran much more sedately past the nation’s fourth most-populous city. Just two years earlier, in 2014, the 840-mile-long river snaking through the center of Texas had gone dry in places because of drought conditions, the NWS said.
As of June 1, more than 120 high-water boat rescues from buildings and cars had been reported near Houston by Fort Bend County first responders. The International Charter “Space and Major Disasters,” of which USGS and EROS are members, was activated May 31 to provide Texas Emergency Management rapid access to Landsat and other satellite data for assessing the extent of damage and helping with disaster response.
With the rain expected to continue, future Landsat acquisitions will be important for that response. After almost 20 inches had fallen over parts of Texas since late May, NWS forecasters predicted up to 10 additional inches of precipitation by June 3, which would exacerbate flooding conditions along the flat, low-lying landscape of suburban Houston.
Landsat 8 Imagery Reveals Heavy Flooding in Sri Lanka May 24, 2016
On May 18, 2016, a Landsat 8 acquisition of flood-ravaged Sri Lanka produced impressive imagery of swollen waterways.
A pattern of torrential rain that began May 15 in the island country just off the southern tip of India has caused massive landslides and flooding, the latter of which is evident when compared to a March 31, 2016, satellite image. Both of the images resulted from data acquired by the shortwave, near-infrared, and red bands (6,5,4) on Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager.
Officials in Sri Lanka’s national Disaster Management Center say the heaviest rains in a quarter century forced 200,000 people out of the low-lying parts of the country’s capital in Colombo, sent 400,000 fleeing to state-run relief camps, and covered entire villages in walls of mud. A history of clearing forests for agricultural use in Sri Lanka is a potential contributor to the destruction caused by the heavy rains and ensuing flooding.
The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, of which USGS and EROS are members, was activated May 17 to provide Sri Lanka’s government rapid access to Landsat and other satellite data for assessing the extent of damage and helping with disaster response. Future Landsat acquisitions will be part of this response.
Landsat 8 Shows Burn Extent, Active Fire at Fort McMurray May 13, 2016
Eleven days after a wildfire first sparked south of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta, Landsat 8’s Operationa