Satellite images taken on May 22, 2026, and published by the NASA Earth Observatory on June 18, 2026, tell the story in two frames: on the left, June 2023, the San Carlos Reservoir holds roughly 60% of its capacity, appearing wide, blue, and expansive against the Arizona desert. On the right, May 22, 2026: just 389 acre-feet of water remain — less than 1% of the reservoir's full capacity of approximately 900,000 acre-feet. Where water once stretched across 158 miles of shoreline, the exposed bed of the Gila River is now visible, flanked by green tamarisk and cottonwood colonizing the newly exposed lakebed.
As ScienceDaily reported on June 18, 2026, the reservoir's collapse triggered a catastrophic hypoxic event — a fatal drop in dissolved oxygen — that killed virtually all aquatic life. On June 5, 2026, the Gila Herald confirmed, the San Carlos Recreation and Wildlife Department closed the lake indefinitely following what officials described as a "catastrophic 100% fish kill."
