Drought in the West A Photographic Essay     
Reno/Truckee Meadows
Interactive Cartograph: Clickable place names, horizontally scrollable.
Bucks Lake Whites, Thomas Creeks & Alexander Lake
Webber Lake Cold Stream/Sierraville CreekSierra Valley (Alfalfa) → Feather River (North Fork)Lake Oroville Brown, Davis & Franktown Creeks
Little Truckee River
Little Truckee River
Steamboat CreekWashoe LakeOphir Creek Tahoe Meadows
Independence LakeIndependence Creek
Davis/Davies & Merrill Creeks Lake Tahoe
Rock Lake(Upper) Price Lake
Stampede ReservoirLittle Truckee River 3Boca ReservoirLittle Truckee River 4Truckee River Donner CreekDonner Lake
Prosser CreekProsser Dam
Washoe Lake: 2.2015 | 5.2015
Northern Nevada's Washoe Lake lies in pictureque Washoe Valley between Reno and Carson City. Dramatic scenes from 1962's The Misfits were filmed here.

Washoe Lake is the terminus for a handful of creeks trickling down the Carson Range which wash out in west valley wetlands before finally flowing into the lake, including McEwen, Musgrove, Davis and Franktown Creeks.

The exception is the formidable Ophir Creek which headwaters generate as run-off near Mt. Rose Wilderness' Incline Lake, cross under Mt. Rose Highway and are fortified by the snowpack that melts into the wetlands of Tahoe Meadows before making a precipitous descent down Slide Mountain with tributaries from (Upper) Price Lake (there were Upper and Lower Price lakes before the slide of 1983 filled-in the lower lake) and Rock Lake.

Washoe Lake officially dried up on 5.14.15. Nevada drought claims Washoe Lake, Nevada Appeal.


Washoe Lake Picnic Grounds in Winter 2015.
All content, including images © Billy Howard, 2015. —All Rights Reserved— High resolution versions available upon request to witness@diresituation.photos. Larger.
Washoe Lake declared dry, 5/2015.
All content, including images © Billy Howard, 2015. —All Rights Reserved— High resolution versions available upon request to witness@diresituation.photos. Larger.
An irrigation pipe lies dormant on the lakebed having no water to carry in Winter, 2015.
 
A young cottonwood that depends on wet roots in riparian environments struggles through the dry Winter, 2/2015.
 
Washoe Lake recedes in Winter.
 
Receding shore of Washoe Lake in April 2015.
 
Washoe Lake continues to shrink in Spring 2015.
 
Boat Ramp Closed Due To Low Water in Winter 2015.
 
Washoe Lake nearly dry in February 2015.
 
Abandoned Interpretive Viewing Deck, Winter 2015.
 
Washoe Lake is gone from Hwy 395 / i580.
 
Lakeshore receding from New Washoe City.
All content, including images © Billy Howard, 2015. —All Rights Reserved— High resolution versions available upon request to witness@diresituation.photos.