A winter storm moving through the West will dump snow and some rain on the Lake Mead region, but unfortunately, meteorologists don't expect it to benefit the reservoir's levels very much.
Lake Mead started January off on a strong note, as water levels are more than 23 feet higher than this time last year. After years of drought, Lake Mead, located in Nevada and Arizona, reached drastically low levels in the summer of 2022, but water levels started to recover in 2023 because of above-average precipitation during the winter months. Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona also improved over the spring and summer months, but its levels have since started a slow decline.
After maintaining its levels since September, Lake Mead levels began slowly increasing again at the end of November. As of Wednesday, Lake Mead was at nearly 1,069 feet. Lake Powell's water levels were at 3,568 feet as of Monday.
An incoming winter storm that has sparked multiple winter weather alerts across several Western states will do little to impact both reservoirs' water levels, National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist John Adair told Newsweek.
As of Wednesday morning, winter weather alerts are in place for parts of multiple U.S. states as a jet stream brings snow and rain over the West. Up to 6 inches of snow is expected to fall in the southern Nevada mountains over a four-hour window on Wednesday as the storm moves eastward, but the snow won't benefit Lake Mead or Lake Powell when it melts in the spring.
Adair said that most of the snow will absorb into the ground when it melts in the spring. Snow from the Rocky Mountains that melts into the Colorado River is what boosts both lakes' water levels, and the incoming storm won't produce much snow that far north.
"We are off to a slow start all across the West for snow accumulation," Adair said. "We hope things will turn around over the next few months."
Some rain will fall in southern Nevada, potentially making "very minor contributions" to Lake Mead's water levels, but Adair warned that the rain won't be very beneficial. Only one-tenth of an inch or less is forecast to fall on Wednesday.
Despite being in an El Niño year—a climate pattern that favors precipitation in the U.S. Southwest—the region isn't receiving torrential rain or heavy snowfall from atmospheric rivers like it did last year.
"That's what really gave us the snowpack last year, but there's not much of that yet," Adair said.
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Anna Skinner is a Newsweek senior reporter based in Indianapolis. Her focus is reporting on the climate, environment and weather ... Read more
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