“This winter’s snowpack is promising and provides us the opportunity to help replenish Lakes Mead and Powell in the near-term – but the reality is that drought conditions in the Colorado River Basin have been more than two decades in the making,” said Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton in a statement.Ĭlimate Point: Feds make moves on water crisis, pollutionĭESPERATE WATER CRISIS IDEAS: Drain the Great Lakes, desalinate ocean water Some of that water will be lost through evaporation or absorption into the dry soils, however.Ĭolorado's snowpack is well above average, and Utah had its snowiest winter on record. The Upper Colorado Basin's snowpack stands at almost 160% above normal, meaning there's a significant amount of water that will melt and flow downstream into the river. What does the Colorado River snowpack look like?
It's a long-planned experiment that might have been halted if water levels in the reservoir had kept dropping. Meanwhile, at Lake Powell this week, authorities released billions of gallons of water downstream through the Grand Canyon as part of an attempt to rebuild beaches and create new fish habitats. READ MORE Latest climate change news from USA TODAY
How does climate change affect you? Subscribe to the weekly Climate Point newsletter "It doesn't remotely come close to solving the long-term problems." "This buys a year," longtime Colorado River expert Brad Udall said. The levels are now headed up and will likely peak sometime in June, raising the surface by 50 feet.īut experts say the boost won't solve or even significantly delay the West's water crisis that has drained the massive Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs – Lake Powell will probably only be about 40% full this fall, far below what it once held.
Historic snowfall across the Rocky Mountains is helping recharge some of the country's biggest reservoirs and provide – briefly – some much-needed breathing room for the oversubscribed Colorado River.įorecasts say the melting snow flowing into Lake Powell via the Colorado River and its tributaries could hit 177% of average this year, a major boost at a time when lake levels had hit historic lows.
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