Posted on 07/07/2011 10:50:46 PM PDT by george76
Summer visitors to Lake Powell will experience water levels last seen ten years ago, according to a new report by the Bureau of Reclamation. The report predicts water levels to be 3,665 feet above sea level by mid-August, a level not seen since 2001. In the last two months, the nation’s second largest man-made lake has added 28 feet of water elevation with half of the snowpack still left to melt. This excess snowmelt is creating more areas to explore at Lake Powell, America’s favorite houseboating destination.
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Lake Powell’s rising water level is a result of the long and wet winter this year. An above-average snowpack, with late snows and unseasonably cold weather has lead to a slower melt than usual. As of May, the snowpack that feeds Lake Powell was 30 percent higher than average, with only 50 percent of the accumulated snowpack melted.
(Excerpt) Read more at kcsg.com ...
Both Lake Powell and Lake Mead need a lot of water to get back to normal.
For July 7th, 2011 ...Snowpack is 488% of average.
Reservoirs above Lake Powell are currently at 89.46% of capacity
We rafted the top half of the Canyon in May. The water was high and fast due to significant releases from Lake Powell that were being made with a view to increasing the water level at Lake Meade. It is good news indeed that it is expected that the level at Lake Powell will be much higher notwithstanding those releases.
I was up in the Colorado mountains a few weeks ago and there is a lot more snow to melt.
Wonder if this means more damge to Glen Canyon dam’s spillway?
yitbos
Lake Tahoe ski resorts were open July 4th.
yitbos
Wahweep Marina & Lodge...once upon a time my partner and I rented houseboats on the Lake until the Park Service said we couldn’t complete with the single vendor they hired. We kept the boats in Page and put them in the water each week we had a rental. I have a photo of my mom catching a huge bass from the boat in a box canyon smaller than my living room. What a great place.
We could soon see some of the highest levels of water at Lake Mead in over a decade. And it may also mean severe limits on visitations to the Grand Canyon floor as the we have a very high and turbulent Colorado River through the Canyon.
The flood releases , by passing the turbines, were a political stunt that did not help the canyon long term and did hurt the concrete spillways.
The BOR should only release water thru the turbines to produce more clean, cheap energy.
The constant re-balancing Mead and Powell—along with the dozens of other reservoirs throughout the whole drainage—has worked well.
According to http://lakemead.water-data.com/ Lake Mead is about 90 feet lower than it was in 2001.
Wow, great video. I so want to take this trip.
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