California is expected to receive more rainfall by Friday from an atmospheric river storm than what Lake Mead in Nevada—the largest reservoir in the U.S.—can hold, meteorologists have said, as the state continues to face the threat of flooding.
On Tuesday, Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), calculated that as of that morning, 7.7 trillion gallons of precipitation had fallen, with a further 3 trillion gallons expected in the following few days—bringing the 10-day total to around 11 trillion gallons.
At its full capacity, Lake Mead can hold just over 8.5 trillion gallons of water, though its water level has been receding in the past two decades and its actual volume as of January stood at almost 3.1 trillion gallons.
