Climate change and persistent drought have already sapped hundreds of billions of gallons of water from the river’s annual flow. Officials from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation took emergency action Friday to add more water to Lake Powell — one of the system’s two major reservoirs downstream of the river’s headwaters in the Colorado mountains — after updated projections showed that spring flows into the already-low reservoir could be less than a third of average. Emergency decisions like those taken Friday illustrate some of the risks of failing to prepare for intense drought, experts say. Read more at the link in our bio. 📝: Elise Schmelzer, The Denver Post 📉: Kevin Hamm, The Denver Post 📷: RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post // rjsangosti #Colorado #ColoradoRiver #drought #snowpack #weather #climate #water