PAGE — Arizona’s wet October and early November have pushed Lake Powell 17 feet above its record low, giving the Colorado River’s biggest reservoirs a little breathing room, KTAR News reported.
Lake Powell stood at 3,533 feet Tuesday, up from its all-time low of 3,516 feet in mid-September, according to KTAR. At that low point, the lake was 146 feet above dead pool, when water can no longer flow by gravity through Glen Canyon Dam, and 26 feet above the minimum level needed to make hydropower.
“It’s going to put off dead pool for a little bit, right?” Mike Crimmins, a climate science extension specialist at the University of Arizona, told KTAR. “This actually creates a little bit more margin.”
Downstream, Lake Mead hit its all-time low on Oct. 22 but has since risen 2 feet, according to the report. Its rise is smaller because it depends on releases from Lake Powell.
Crimmins said the rain is recharging soil moisture and easing short-term drought in Arizona’s high country. Wet soil in the fall can also help more spring snowmelt reach the Colorado River, he said.
But he cautioned that long-term drought persists. “You really can’t just erase those deficits in a couple of weeks,” Crimmins said, adding that he is “cautiously optimistic” and hoping for a strong El Niño this winter.
He said the reservoirs’ problems are not likely to be solved by spring.
Sources: KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: NASA Johnson Space Center / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
