Do you have a question about Lake Mead? On Twitter: @joannaallhands. The latest report from the US Bureau of Reclamation shows Lake Mead at just over 1,040 feet above sea level in July, having dropped nearly 10 feet in just two months, and is currently at just. So their demands have been higher.. The reservoirwhich stretches across Nevada and Arizona, on the Colorado Riveris relied upon by 25 million people living in the region. All Rights Reserved. This cuts water deliveries made to Lower Basin states, which include Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Drought has a way of revealing things. A week after that discovery, two sisters paddle-boarding on the lake came across what they thought were the bones of a bighorn sheep, but which turned out to be another set of human remains. There might actually be some archaeological relics, Green said, adding that a nearby museum has artifacts from the Puebloan people, who lived in the area about a thousand years earlier. Launch ramps at Temple Bar and Boulder Harbor will remain closed. Receding waters can highlight the precarity of the crucial systems that keep societies functioning and expose hidden ancient cities. NOAA water level observations are available at specific locations, as described on the Monitoring Network page or as a lake-wide average. Since March 15, 2022, when the paper was presented to the Geological Society of America, the official water level for Lake Mead dropped from 1,067 feet to 1,041 feet in August, then increased . Launch ramp access this summer, according to Lake Mead . As of December 1, the water levels stood at 1,042.97 feet. Water level status projections from the BOR's March 2022 Most Probable Inflow 24-Month Study: The current water elevation for end of March is 1,063.11 feet. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Dashed and dot dashed lines represent the 10th and 90th percentiles, respectively. The May forecast only projects hitting 3,489 feet once, in March 2024, and thats only in the minimum probable forecast. It's about 21 feet below where it was a year ago today. "Long periods of low rainfall not only dry up the moisture supply for plants (risking fires and large-scale tree mortality events, etc. It then projects water levels will rise slightly at the beginning of 2024 to 1,029.90. These lake-wide averages are based on a select set of U.S. and Canadian station data as determined by the Coordinating Committee. It's formed by the Hoover Dam, which generates electricity for the surrounding communities. "This groundwater is absolutely crucial to supplying streams in [California's] long, dry summers every year, not just during drought," Rempe said. The 2022 Drought Response Operations Plan includes an additional release of 500 kaf from Flaming Gorge from May 2022 through April 2023. It was formed with the creation of the Hoover Dam, which submerged St Thomas, a Mormon settlement founded in 1865. More critically, the bureau predicts the reservoir will be at nearly the same level, around 1,041 feet, come January. You will find things in the lake. Last spring, the Bureau of Reclamation announced an unprecedented strategy to boost water levels in Lake Powell and maintain electricity production from the Glen Canyon Dam, including releasing more water from smaller, upstream reservoirs while withholding water in Lake Powell itself instead of sending it downstream to Lake Mead. Five-Year Probabilistic Projections of future conditions in the Colorado River system currently extend through 2026. 2023 Cable News Network. One of the towns final residents left in 1938 when waters reached his front door, according to the Deseret News. The bureau's 24-month study shows that Lake Mead is headed 26 feet lower a year from now. , All Rights Reserved. With climate change, its highly unlikely that well get years of wetter than normal conditions. Dropping water levels at Lake Mead have caused its shorelines to recede, exposing boats, barrels and bodies. He also cautioned that the Pacific Ocean is heading into its third La Nina year in a row, which is a very rare event. La Nina, defined by cooler-than-average water in the equatorial Pacific, has a strong influence on weather in the US West. Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Without those emergency steps, the government estimated there was about a 25% chance the Glen Canyon Dam, which generates power for as many as 5.8 million homes and businesses across seven states, would have stopped producing energy by the end of this year. The reservoir relies on rainfall and winter snowpack to replenish its water levels. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows that between October last year and January 24, 2023, the percentage of Nevada suffering from Extreme Drought decreased from 44.61 to 18.53, with the rest of the state experiencing Moderate Drought and Severe Drought. In August, the bureau predicted the reservoir would most likely be at 1,059 feet at the end of this month, and 1,057 feet at worst. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Yes, we had very, very low runoff this year, Aaron said. One is that federal officials made an unprecedented decision last month to delay water released from upstream at Lake Powell, to preserve the Glen Canyon Dams hydropower-producing capabilities. Order your guide, either as an ePub ebook for your Kindle or as a PDF version. Lake Mead is on the border of Nevada and Arizona. Drought conditions in the Southwest worsened significantly over the past week, the US Drought Monitor reported Thursday. Updated Yosemite's fire management service said 545 firefighters were battling the blaze, including "proactively protecting" the grove -- the largest sequoia grove in Yosemite, with over 500 mature trees. 2023 www.azcentral.com. Because of the reservoirs plummeting level, states that rely on water from the lower Colorado River were already subject to the cuts that accompany a Tier 1 shortage beginning in January 2022, which have mainly impacted agricultural water use. If it reaches this point, the lake, which provides electricity to thousands of people, will reach a dire point. The Lake hadn't reached such a low level since it was constructed in the 1930s. The vast reservoirs water level has dropped more than 170ft (52m) since 1983, the same year the Colorado River flooded the dams spillways. Over-extraction, extreme heat and decreased snowmelt have burdened the Colorado River Basin and nearly 40 years later, Lake Mead is down to about 27% of its capacity. The drought that has scorched the region containing Lake Mead has meant that the reservoir has not refilled as quickly as the water is being used. The Colorado River irrigates farms, powers electric grids and provides drinking water for 40 million people. At the same time in 2021, the water levels were at 1,067 feet, while in 2020. Do you have a question about Lake Mead? California snowpack provides 30% of the states water, according to the Department of Water Resources. So what does that mean for the water levels at Lake Mead? The lake may eventually reach dead pool, which is at 895 feet, when the water would no longer flow past the dam. Reclamation only includes about half because thats all the agreements that have been signed. Great Lakes Water Level Observations. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. Jennifer Pitt, the Colorado River program director with the National Audubon Society, an environmental organization, previously told Newsweek: "To refill the Colorado River reservoirs, you would need three average years of snowfall without any water use. The megadrought that has gripped large areas of the western states has caused the lake to get drier and drier every year: In July 2022, Lake Mead reached its lowest water level since it was constructed in the 1930s at 1,040.8 feet. Projection for end of April 2022 is 1,057.14 feet. The recent rainfall is unlikely to be a long-term solution for the lake. The lake has a surface area of 247.1 square miles and spans the Nevada-Arizona border, providing 25 million people across Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah with water. There is some opportunity for the Colorado River to pick up more inflow between Lake Powell and Lake Mead, from springs and small creeks in the Grand Canyon but drought and climate change have been reducing these flows, as well. The reduction of releases from Lake Powell from 7.48 maf to 7.00 maf in water year 2022 will result in a reduced release volume of 0.480 maf that normally would have been released from Glen Canyon Dam to Lake Mead as part of the 7.48 maf annual release volume, consistent with routine operations under the 2007 Interim Guidelines. The Colorado River reservoirwhich has been rapidly drying up due to the ongoing megadrought gripping Nevada and neighboring statescould reach lows of 1,024.47 feet by November, a study released by the Bureau on January 19 said. News Release Date: September 24, 2021 BOULDER CITY, Nev.. - Lake Mead National Recreation Area (NRA) is reminding boaters to be aware of expected changes to water access points and boat launch areas in 2022 due to historically low water levels.Three launch ramps and three marinas remain open in the park; however, some launch sites will be impacted next spring and summer by continuing . Forecast; Maps; Severe Weather; Hurricanes; . The region is already in an unprecedented Tier 1 shortage on the Colorado River, which led to mandatory water cuts that mainly impacted agriculture. Echo Bay will operate on two lanes of concrete; one lane of pipe mat extension will be installed at 1,060 feet elevation. More extreme water cuts are all but certain in the Southwest starting next year including new water cuts for California according to the latest government forecast for the Colorado River and Lake Mead, the countrys largest reservoir. The state saw a particularly wet monsoon season at the end of July and into August, meaning the river filled slightly. Discovery Company. In a sign of how bad the water crisis has gotten for the Southwest, Lake Mead is already running well below what last years projections suggested, even in its worst-case scenario. A Warner Bros. The following two figures show a combination of historical and projected reservoir elevations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Officials are focused on the wrong problem, advocates say. Even a few really wet years probably wouldn't refill the reservoirs, given how low they are and how temperatures continue to rise (causing more evapotranspiration)," Koebele said. CRMMS Ensemble Mode is driven by an ensemble of monthly unregulated streamflow forecasts developed by the National Weather Service Colorado Basin River Forecasting Center (CBRFC) using the Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) method. Pennsylvania: The official registration and financial information of National Parks Traveler may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling 800-732-0999. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. Lake Mead has been slowly rising now at 1,046.3 feet and is now about 5.5 feet above where it was near the end of July (1,040.6 feet). Lake levels are expressed as altitudes the number of feet the lake's surface is above sea level not as depths. South Coves launch ramp is closed, but primitive launching is still available approximately 0.5 mile to the south of the concrete launch ramp. The latest report from the US Bureau of Reclamation shows Lake Mead at just over 1,040 feet above sea level in July, having dropped nearly 10 feet in just two months, and is currently at just 27% of its maximum capacity. The water line dropped below of the reservoirs original water intake valves for the first time in April. Hemenway Harbor will operate on one lane of concrete; pipe mat extension will be installed at 1,064 feet elevation. Its a point we want to avoid (that is, if we can). A sunken second world war-era Higgins landing craft that used to be nearly 200ft underwater rests on its side near the Lake Mead Marina on Thursday. While July is typically a dry time of year in the region, 2022 was a particularly low point for Lake Mead. 2023 Cable News Network. "But, remember, because our reservoirsparticularly Powell and Meadare so low from 23-plus years of drought, it would take many years of above-average snow and runoff to refill the reservoirs. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about Lake Mead and water levels? Projection for end of July 2022 is 1,046.87 feet. "We also have two important decisions coming up. ), they also limit the amount of groundwater that is stored within the landscape," Daniella Rempe, a hydrologist and geomorphologist at the Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas in Austin, previously told Newsweek. Projection for end of April 2022 is 1,057.14 feet. Now officials seek to slash that use to 86 gallons by 2035, a task the . On December 1, 2022, the lake's water levels were 1,042.97 feet above sea level, while as of February 1, 2023, they measured 1,046.99 feet. Its still far below the surface, but as the water levels fall light is reaching the plane for the first time in decades, 8NewsNow reported. Dr. Joellen Russell, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Arizona and member of the group Science Moms, told Newsweek: "Lake Mead is more than 180 feet below its "full level" and hasn't been close to full since 1999. Projected water levels are provided typically on the 15th of each month by the BOR. To be notified when updated projections are available, please email ColoradoRiverModeling@usbr.gov with Add Me as the subject. Thats 18 feet past the deepest level of shortage for which weve plannedand 13 feet below its last major defense point before the lake completely tanks. That . File photos of Lake Mead and heavy rainfall. Federal officials have a sobering forecast for the Colorado River Basin: Lake Mead, the nations largest reservoir which serves millions of people in the Southwest, will likely drop another 12 feet by this fall. The lake elevation data below come from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), which manages Lake Mead, Lake Powell, and other portions of the Colorado River watershed.As of July 18, 2022, the water elevation at the Hoover Dam was 1041.30 feet (317.4 meters) above sea level; the water elevation at the end of July 2000 (around the time of the Landsat 7 image above) was 1199.97 feet (341 meters). California and Nevada have had extremely heavy rainfall in recent days, during one of the severest droughts the region has ever seen. Residents of the following states may obtain a copy of our financial and additional information as stated below: The entire southwest is in real trouble. The reservoirs forecasts are also now accounting for the falling water level and the governments emergency actions at Lake Powell, Meads upstream neighbor and the countrys second-largest reservoir. In July 2022, the lake reached a historic low of 1,040 feet above sea level. A side by side comparison shows the changes in Lake Mead's water levels since 2000 to 2022. A Warner Bros. Did you encounter any technical issues? Solid lines represent historical elevations (black), and median projected elevations for the scenario (yellow). National Parks Traveler was formed in the state of Utah for the purpose of informing and educating about national parks and protected areas. Importantly, the Bureau of Reclamations studies are based on historical data from the 1990s a much wetter period in the West, said Eric Kuhn, a retired former manager of the Colorado River Water Conservation District. The lake's water levels have risen since December, but are forecast to reach an all-time low later in the year. The region continues to grapple with mostly dry conditions, and the water levels are still incredibly low compared to the same point last year. Let us know via science@newsweek.com. Help power the National Parks Travelers coverage of national parks and protected areas. Its water levels are rapidly declining, edging closer and closer to deadpool level. Lake Mead's water levels have risen slightly from 1,042.97 feet at the beginning of December, to 1,045.80 feet as of January 19. Aridification has led to low soil moisture and reduced runoff efficiencymeaning that even if we get big storms, less of it becomes runoff in the river. 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