Recent storms appear to have brought some relief to Lake Powell, while Lake Mead remains near historically low levels.
The contrasting picture comes amid a continuing strain on the Colorado River system and its two largest reservoirs, following years of drought and a winter of exceptionally low snowpack.
"Lake Powell water levels continue to rise from all of the heavy rain across the Four Corners," the National Weather Service’s Salt Lake City, Utah office said on X, Sunday.
"It is up over 10 feet (3529.4') from the yearly low (3519.1') with a lot more water moving toward Lake Powell as river flows remain very high," the agency said, adding, however, that the reservoir still remained "very far" from full pool. As of Saturday, Lake Powell was just 23 percent full, according to official data.
Provisional U.S. Geological Survey data indicate that Lake Powell, the nation's second largest reservoir, gained around 7 feet over the past week, rising from approximately 3,523 feet on October 19 to about 3,530 feet by Sunday.
Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the U.S., saw little comparable improvement, however. Bureau of Reclamation figures show that its elevation hovered around 1,037 feet over the same period, below the record low recorded earlier this year.
Newsweek contacted the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages Lakes Powell and Mead, for comment via email on Monday.
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Heavy Rain Drives Runoff Into Lake Powell
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski told Newsweek repeated rounds of rain have progressively saturated the soil across the region. With evaporation also declining during autumn, a greater share of subsequent rainfall can run into streams and rivers, including those feeding the Colorado River system, he explained.
"Some of that will work into the Colorado River basin, as we have been seeing, so there should continue to be ‘ratchet ups’ in lake levels as more rounds of surges work down the Colorado," Sosnowski said.
The meteorologist estimated that a general 0.5 to 3 inches of rain had fallen across the region over the past week, with up to twice that amount in some areas. Rainfall totals for October reached 5.69 inches in Flagstaff, Arizona, nearly four times its historical monthly average, and 4.28 inches in Durango, Colorado, roughly three times its average. Clovis, New Mexico, recorded 13.71 inches through Sunday, nearly 5.5 times its October average, he said.
"The biggest rains with this most recent event over the past five days or so have been over the mountains from eastern Arizona to western New Mexico, northward to western and central Colorado and southeastern Utah," Sosnowski said. "The steeper the terrain, the faster and more significant the runoff."
He added that the rainfall had produced record flows along parts of the San Juan River.
Colorado River Crisis Fuels Legal Fight
Lake Mead and Lake Powell fell to record-low elevations this summer amid what federal water managers called a multidecadal, "unprecedented" drought that produced "historically low" runoff and reservoir levels.
Both lakes are situated along the Colorado River, a vital resource for the West that stretches 1,400 miles and supplies water to tens of millions of people across seven states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. It also irrigates millions of acres of farmland and supports hydropower generation, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat.
The states that depend on the river have struggled to reach a consensus on how to share its water, with key agreements that dictate its governance expiring in 2026.
Nevada filed a federal lawsuit in August challenging the Department of the Interior’s new operating framework for the river, arguing that it could impose steep cuts on Lower Basin states without requiring mandatory reductions from the Upper Basin. Arizona moved to join the case in October, saying the federal plan placed an unfair share of the burden on Lower Basin communities.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Robert Greenall and John Fitzpatrick