Have Lake Mead Water Levels Stopped Rising? What We Know

Lake Mead's water levels have been steadily increasing this summer, fueling hope that the Colorado River reservoir might be recovering partially after a yearslong drought.

After that extended drought period, Lake Mead, which is in Nevada and Arizona, reached drastically low levels last summer, but levels began rising in earnest in April after California experienced a wet winter. The resulting above-average snowfall in the mountains led to an increased snowpack melt that has continued to supplement Lake Mead this summer.

At the end of April, Lake Mead's levels were at just over 1,047 feet, compared with 1,055 feet in April 2022. In 2022, the levels progressively dipped, reaching their lowest point at 1,040 feet at the end of July that year. The levels were alarming, raising concern about what would happen if the lake were to reach dead pool, in which there is not enough water in the lake to flow downstream, at 895 feet.

The lake's levels are in a much better position this year, at 1,058 feet on Wednesday, more than 16 feet higher than July 12, 2022. However, experts believe that the influx of water has slowed and that Lake Mead's levels won't rise much more, if at all, for the rest of the summer.

AccuWeather senior meteorologist David Houk told Newsweek that no snowpack remains below 10,000 feet.

"We're in a better position than we were last year at this time, but now we start to see the drain on the overall hydrological levels across the entire basin," he said.

The slowed intake has already been reported at Lake Powell, when levels dropped slightly on July 6 for the first time since April. That drop in levels is a sign that spring runoff has slowed down, according to a NewsNation report.

"We are now entering what is called the 'base flow period,' where inflows plateau and Colorado River Basin reservoirs are not expected to rise again until next spring when runoff begins," a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokesperson told NewsNation.

The spokesperson added that "one good water year will not fix the decades of drought." Lake Powell is at only 41 percent capacity.

Newsweek reached out to the Bureau of Reclamation by email for comment.

Lake Powell influences the water levels at Lake Mead, which is downstream. Although Lake Mead's levels have yet to drop, the rate at which they are rising is slowing down. Lake Powell's temporary dip in levels could be a sign of what's to come at Lake Mead.

The West Coast's wet winter and the above-average snowfall are surely a good sign. But Jennifer Pitt, the director of the National Audubon Society's Colorado River Program, previously told Newsweek that the region would need three years' worth of average snowfall with no water use for the reservoir to recover.