Is Lake Mead making a comeback?

Despite hope that the lake will return to what it once was, Lake Mead's chance at a full recovery is slim. Jennifer Pitt, director of the National Audubon Society's Colorado River Program, previously told Newsweek that it is possible only if three years of average snowfall occur with no water use from the reservoir.



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Water levels at Lake Mead are rebounding after a rare wet and snowy winter in the Colorado River's headwaters and should start 2024 nearly 18 feet higher than last January, government forecasters said Tuesday.

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Lake Mead expected to have gained 20 feet of water by end of 2023. By the end of the year, the water level at Lake Mead is expected to be at least 20 feet higher than it was in January, according to a Bureau of Reclamation forecast released this week.

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“Although every drop counts, the reality is that the rain we received from Tropical Storm Hilary and runoff into the tributaries that enter Lake Mead as well as reduced releases from Hoover Dam — due to a decrease in downstream demand — has had some minor impact on the lake's elevation,” according to U.S. Bureau of ...

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Lake Powell and Lake Mead - the nation's largest reservoirs - are unlikely to refill for another 50 years and would need six consecutive years of deadly atmospheric rivers to replenish, experts say.

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Officials have warned that dead pool could be reached by 2025, if the lake continues drying up at the rate it is currently.

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Lake Mead provides water to the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada as well as some of Mexico, providing sustenance to nearly 20 million people and large areas of farmland.

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Dead pool conditions would mean the end of all electric production, as well as water, from the Colorado River. Electricity would not just be the only thing lost. Without Lake Mead, Las Vegas would lose access to 90 percent of its water sources.

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Most of our rainwater travels untreated through gutters, storm drains, channels, washes and eventually into the major source of our drinking water - Lake Mead. All storm drains lead to lake mead. Stormwater that falls in the Las Vegas Valley picks up pollutants and travels untreated to Lake Mead.

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The last time Lake Mead was at maximum capacity, reaching an elevation of about 1,220 feet near the dam, was in 1983 and 1999, NASA notes.

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The vast reservoir's water level has dropped more than 170ft (52m) since 1983, the same year the Colorado River flooded the dam's spillways. Over-extraction, extreme heat and decreased snowmelt have burdened the Colorado River Basin and nearly 40 years later, Lake Mead is down to about 27% of its capacity.

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Lake Mead's elevation is shown as feet above sea level. Lake Mead hit its all-time low (after initial filling in the 1930s) last year on July 26 when it fell to 1,040.74 feet.

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Tourism on the Colorado River is a $9 billion-a-year industry, but that will drop off a cliff with fewer options for rafting, fishing, and boating. Many of the canals and branches from the Colorado River that channel drinking water would also run dry. Arizona gets more than one-third of its water from the river.

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Downriver towns and major cities would see the most damage, in the event of the dam's physical collapse. Water flows would engulf many towns and growing cities around Mohave county, including Laughlin, Nevada; Needles, California; Lake Havasu, Arizona; and even as far south as Yuma, Arizona, and San Luis Rey, Colorado.

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The amount of water that melted off and made its way into the river system was enough for the Bureau of Reclamation to release far more water from Glen Canyon Dam at Lake Powell this year, which means more water flowing downstream into Lake Mead.

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As crazy as it sounds, engineers say the idea is technically feasible. It would involve building a system of dams and pipelines to move the water uphill across multiple states over the Continental Divide. Gravity would then work in our favor to drop the water down to the Colorado River watershed.

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If the Hoover Dam shuts down, it will have a ripple effect in the states of Nevada, Arizona, and California. There will be less water to go around, power will have to come from less clean sources, and all industries will be impacted some way or another.

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