Colorado River states get a wet winter, but Lake Powell will get below-average runoff, forecast says
Spring storms brought more snow to mountains across the Western U.S., bringing water for struggling Lake Powell with them. The National Weather Service Colorado Basin River Forecast Center on Friday estimated that Lake Powell will receive 5.7 million acre-feet of water between April and July as snow melts off the mountains. An acre-foot is roughly enough water to sustain two houses for a year. That volume is 89% of the normal runoff for that time period recorded between 1991 and 2020. Facing extreme drought and climate change since the turn of the century, Lake Powell dropped to a historic low of 22% full in Feb. 2023. The reservoir currently stands at about 32% full.
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