The newest information from the parched West is unsurprising however nonetheless shockingly unhealthy: One of the area’s most essential rivers is working dry in locations the place water is normally plentiful. Following a interval of extremely scorching days in July, a stretch of the Rio Grande river in Albuquerque, New Mexico is nothing greater than a muddy creek mattress—one thing that hasn’t happened in decades.

As of July 21, greater than 85% of New Mexico was in extreme to distinctive drought situations, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Last week, the state skilled searing temperatures that broke records. Roswell, some 200 miles southeast of Albuquerque, is on its 16th straight day of temperatures above 100 levels Fahrenheit (37.8 levels Celsius). And as New Mexico nonetheless struggles to get better from its worst fires on file earlier this yr, the newly dry river appears to be an indication of what’s to come back.

“The river dries not with a bang, but with a muddy whimper and the dawn serenade of awakening birds,” journalist John Fleck wrote in a blog post.

In this time of historic drought, upstream reserves that would in any other case assist the river with its move are already spoken for, the Washington Post reports. One main reservoir is below building, whereas others are additionally struggling low water ranges because of a bad snowpack year, little rain, and searing temperatures. Under the river’s water-sharing settlement, New Mexico owes Texas water and fell wanting its required water deliveries final yr, that means there’s even much less water obtainable for the New Mexico stretch. The dry patch in Albuquerque is unhealthy information for farmers within the area who depend on the river for water, in addition to for the varied crops and animals that depend on the river.

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Data from the U.S. Geological Survey exhibits the Rio Grande’s discharge fee—a measure of how briskly water is flowing via a river—on July 25 stood at simply 20.2 cubic ft (0.57 cubic meters) per second. This is simply above the historic low set in 1974 and much under the imply every day discharge of 965 cubic ft (27.33 cubic meters).

“We’re pretty much out of water at this point,” Jason Casuga, CEO of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, instructed the Washington Post.

The practically 1,900-mile (3,060-kilometer) river begins within the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and wends its means via the Southwest, finally reaching the Gulf of Mexico. Along the best way, the river serves as a water supply for round 6 million folks and helps wildlife and various ecosystems, from deserts to forests.

Like different waterways within the West, the river is affected by many years of human overuse and mismanagement. About 80% of the water from the river is used to irrigate crops in each the U.S. and Mexico. The river has been used for irrigation for a whole lot of years, since earlier than the arrival of European settlers. In the late Thirties and early Forties, the river’s provide was divided up between states in addition to the U.S. and Mexico; because the river bought more and more irrigated and diverted, the politics of its use grew to become far more complicated.

It’s not uncommon for parts of the river to dry up in the course of the summer season months, and the river normally goes via a couple of dry years earlier than a moist season refills it. But the previous few years have been significantly tough for the Rio Grande, rendering it an almost unrecognizable muddy creek mattress via stretches of New Mexico the place it might usually nonetheless have water this time of yr. It’s not simply New Mexico seeing the impacts: In April, the river totally dried up for the primary time on file in Big Bend National Park in Texas, formally reaching a degree of 0 cubic ft per second and staying dry for many of May.

The Rio Grande is way from the one essential waterway struggling within the West’s historic drought, the worst in 1,200 years that’s been supercharged by local weather change. The Colorado River is reaching a disaster level because of overuse and drought, whereas essential reservoirs alongside the river—most notably Lake Mead and Lake Powell—have additionally fallen to dramatic lows this yr.