In early 2023, Lake Powell hit a record low — sitting at only about 22% capacity. As of late July, those levels were nearly double. Utah’s Colorado River Commissioner Gene Shawcroft said the ailing reservoir had risen 65 feet from the record spring runoff. Those inflows lifted the water levels to about 40% capacity.
Parts of California are under water, the Rocky Mountains are bracing for more snow, flood warnings are in place in Nevada, and water is being released from some Arizona reservoirs to make room for an expected bountiful spring runoff.
All the moisture has helped alleviate dry conditions in many parts of the western U.S. Even major reservoirs on the Colorado River are trending in the right direction.
Recent data show a snowy start to 2023 for the Colorado River basin, with heavy winter precipitation in the Rocky Mountains projected to boost spring spring runoff into Lake Powell to 117% of an average year’s flows.
But scientists say that while this winter’s snow may provide a temporary boost to major reservoirs, it will not provide enough water to fix the Southwest’s long-term supply-demand imbalance, as the beleaguered river continues to grapple with climate change and steady demand.
New data show a snowy start to 2023 for the Colorado River basin. Inflows into Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest reservoir, are currently projected to be 117% of average during spring runoff thanks to heavy winter precipitation in the Rocky Mountains.
The beleaguered river is shrinking due to climate change and steady demand. Scientists say this winter’s snow may provide a temporary boost to major reservoirs, but will not provide enough water to fix the Southwest’s supply-demand imbalance.
The Colorado River Basin looks to be headed for a third straight dry year, according to the April report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.
Although the weather in March was more active than it was in January and February, it continued a trend of either below or well-below normal precipitation across much of the Colorado River Basin, according to Brenda Alcorn, a hydrologist at the NOAA forecast center.
Snow falling in the mountains and valleys was a welcome sight in a state struggling with drought.
Heavy late-December snowstorms made that month the wettest it has been in at least two years, and snowfall from the more recent storms seems to be breaking La Niña’s dry winter curse. But experts caution the somewhat-promising start to winter is just that — a start.
It’s too soon to know whether the spate of precipitation will be fleeting or will multiply into more storms, building the snowpack needed for a healthy spring runoff to feed rivers and defying La Niña, a weather pattern that typically makes the Southwest drier than normal in the winter and spring.
The past 30 days have at least temporarily erased hopes of above-average spring runoff in the Colorado River Basin, according to the February report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center.
“Very little precipitation during the last three weeks of January, especially across southern Utah and southwest Colorado,” Cody Moser, a hydrologist with the NOAA forecast center, said Monday during a web briefing to review the agency’s latest monthly water-supply report.
The National Resources Conservation Service maintains snow telemetry (SNOTEL) sites across the Colorado River Basin, which automatically report snow depth and quality. Beginning in December, NOAA produces regular reports based on the SNOTEL data, detailing how that snow might translate into streamflow come spring.
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