The Western US is an empire built on snow. And that snow is vanishing.

 Southwest gripped by its worst drought in 1,200 years

Especially the crucial frozen variety /of water/ with its multi-month staying power. 

Rain, as desperately as it’s needed, isn’t quite the same: Unless it goes into a lake or reservoir, it won’t be available for weeks or months in the future, the way snowmelt can be.

“The Southwest has to get it in its head that it’s never going to get back to the levels of water availability that we had in the late 20th century,”

But the problems posed by thinning rains and shrinking snows have reached a crisis point all the same, with major implications for everything from energy to agriculture. 

And what’s happening now across the US West is transpiring — or will be soon — across countries like Pakistan, India, China and their neighbors that depend on rivers fed by Himalayan glaciers, which are also slowly retreating.

Bloomberg 3 August 2022

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-western-us-snowpack-drought/

 ... bringing renewed water restrictions, wildfire danger and angst

to one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions, just as the heat of summer approaches.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-american-west-is-locked-in-its.html

Megadrought’ threatens water and power supplies to millions in US

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2022/05/megadrought-threatens-water-and-power.html