Western Water Map

Dean Farrell/ California Data Exchange Center/ Water Data for Texas/ USGS/ USBR/ USDA

Western Water tracks the water levels of reservoirs in several western states. It is a proxy for water availability in the selected states more generally. Results will be updated monthly.

Note: Many reservoirs are left partially empty to help with flood control if they are not 100% full. Because of all this and other management strategies, reservoir levels are often not the best measure of how water supplies are shrinking over time in the West due to climate change. The better proxy for that would be snowpack levels which is an excellent indicator of recent temperature and precipitation trends.