This Is What Extreme Drought Looks Like, On a Graph
The Arkansas River barely deserves the name right now. As this graph from the U.S. Geological Survey shows, the river has almost bottomed out at the Syracuse, Kansas gauging station, near the Colorado border. The flow there is just 0.63 cubic feet per second–less than 1 percent of the historical average for this time of year. Yesterday, NPR ran a story about how the lack of water hurts multiple sectors in the Arkansas River Basin: rafting companies, farmers, and cities.
