“It’s maybe a year’s worth of breathing room”: Lake Powell is rising — for now. A large snowpack is quickly melting into the critical Colorado River reservoir, but experts say it will do little to reverse the effects of a historic megadrought.
The snow was slow to melt in early spring, with colder-than-normal temperatures and periods of mountain snow extending into late April. But early May warmth has triggered a surge of snowmelt. Temperatures rose into the 70s for several days early in the month in the mountains of western Colorado and eastern Utah.
After Lake Powell’s surface dropped to about 3,520 feet above sea level in mid-April, it has been largely rising. That accelerated to an increase of more than a foot per day over the past week, according to data from the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which owns and operates Glen Canyon Dam. The lake’s height reached about 3,533 feet above sea level on Tuesday.And the lake is forecast to rise 70 to 71 feet, in all, by the fall.
Nor will it make much of a dent in a water deficit in the two reservoirs that totals 35 million acre-feet . This year’s snowpack and melt would have to repeat for the next six years to make up the gap, Udall said. So while some might look at the rising lake waters as reason to back off water conservation measures, Udall suggested that perspective amounts to “amnesia and a complete distrust of what the science has shown.” Though climate change means potential for some extremely wet years — as the air warms, it can hold more moisture — there are no signs of the megadrought ending, he said.
“The overall game here hasn’t changed one bit,” Udall said. “We’ve still got a major problem to solve.”
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