Geography

The snowpack is crucial to the West’s water supply, ecosystems and economy. But climate change threatens to make the region’s snowpack thinner and less reliable. We talk to a leading snowpack researcher about how scientists are analyzing the past, present and future of the West’s snow.

This page features photos of Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, near Page, Arizona. The 710-foot dam was built from 1956 to 1966. The reservoir is named for explorer...

In 2004, Michael and Chantell Sackett purchased a plot of land near Priest Lake, Idaho, in the picturesque northern reaches of the state’s panhandle. On one side of their...

A federal agency aims to offset rising costs linked to Lake Powell’s inability to produce as much hydropower due to drought.

This page features photos of Theodore Roosevelt Lake and Theodore Roosevelt Dam, along the Salt River east of Phoenix. Roosevelt Dam, which rises 357 feet, was the first structure completed...

Decades of climate change-driven drought, combined with the overpumping of aquifers, is making the valley desperately dry — and appears to be intensifying the levels of heavy metals in drinking water.

Forty years after the Holy Cross Wilderness Area was created, an effort to explore tapping its water has generated more than 500 public comments.

Traditional irrigation canals, or acequias, could help balance the water supply during droughts — if they are protected.

Changing storms in the Southwest are altering timeless food traditions as researchers grapple with how to study the monsoon’s erratic nature.

A synthetic chemical’s appearance in public water supply wells raises questions of how to protect the public from unknown health hazards.