Lake Mead, the main water source for Las Vegas and all of Southern Nevada, may drop to its lowest level ever in 2027.

The Colorado River is in an "unprecedented drought," putting pressure on state leaders and limiting recreation access for vacationers this summer.

After one of the Colorado River’s driest years in decades, Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the largest reservoirs in the country — could see alarming declines in the coming years, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced today.

New data from the Bureau of Reclamation puts the river and its reservoirs in formal shortage conditions. Policymakers are stuck on ways to fix that in the years to come.

Not as much water flows into the river as people are entitled to take out of it. A new idea might change that, but complicated political and practical negotiations stand in the way.