Three Scenarios Predicted for Lake Powell Water Levels

Three potential eventualities have been mapped out for Lake Powell because the summer time months method.

Lake Powell’s water ranges might rise to three,615.62 ft by the tip of July, in accordance with a 24-month report on most possible influx launched in April by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. That is the best-case state of affairs mapped out by the bureau.

Water ranges on the reservoir, which sits on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, have been at 3,530.67 ft as of Sunday. One other and extra seemingly state of affairs forecasts that the reservoir will attain 3,590 ft by the tip of July, barely increased than its present degree. On the finish of July 2022, Lake Powell dipped to three,535 ft.

The minimal potential water degree that could possibly be seen this summer time is 3,575.44 ft, in accordance with the Bureau of Reclamation’s forecasting.

In February, Lake Powell’s water degree reached a low of three,521.77 ft. That is the bottom degree because the man-made lake was first crammed within the Sixties, not lengthy after its development.

The low water ranges are primarily a results of the extreme drought that hit the Southwest, together with overconsumption of water within the Western states. Lake Powell started drying up after the drought began in 2000. However a lot of the West noticed extreme winter storms in latest months. This led to increased than common snowpack ranges, which weren’t an element throughout the dry interval final yr.

As this snowpack melts with seasonal warming, snowmelt will feed into Lake Powell and different reservoirs on the Colorado River like Lake Mead. The Bureau of Reclamation has already applied initiatives to assist handle the upper than common flows.

On the finish of April, as much as 39,500 cubic ft per second of water was launched from the Glen Canyon Dam. That is way more than traditional. The water ran by way of the Grand Canyon all the best way into Lake Mead in an effort to replenish its water ranges.

Lake Powell and Lake Mead are vastly essential to the Southwest, as tens of millions of individuals within the surrounding states depend on them for water. Lake Mead supplies water to 25 million folks residing within the Colorado River Basin states.

Each reservoirs have been shaped by dams that generate hydropower to the encircling areas.

Bureau of Reclamation officers are watching water ranges intently to find out whether or not they should implement initiates to preserve water.

Do you will have a tip on a science story that Newsweek ought to be protecting? Do you will have a query about drought? Tell us by way of [email protected].