Posted on 05/25/2014 9:58:25 AM PDT by ckilmer
The Max Water Elevation of Glen Canyon Dam is recorded as 3711ft. The article posts the present water level at 1080ft, which is about 30 ft above the min operating inlet elevation of 1050ft.
In 2010 it’s lowest level was reached at 1081.85ft. End of last year it was recorded at 1103 in Nov13, having dropped about 20 ft since the previous Feb13.
With the present draught, the recharge might not happen for another year or so. If the article quoting the present level as 1080ft, even with precipitation in the watershed measuring like last year’s, it could drop to 1060ft.
in 1983, one of the higher years, it was 1206-1225ft.
the drought has occurred WITHOUT any rise in annual average global temperatures in the last 17+ years, clearly indicative of bigger forces than CO2 at work, affecting trade winds and jet stream cycles in the atmosphere, dynamically & constantly affecting, and changing, the flow or moisture laden clouds
Nice hydrology summary.
My bust,..I posted Lake Mead datum vice Lake Powell.
That’s why those who critiqued the report believed the worldwide weather models weren’t accurate enough to reliably forecast continuing drought.
Lake Powell was at its present level in the late 1960s, when it was initially filling; from there it took another decade to completely fill.
That means from here it would take a decade of “normal” precipitation to refill.
But that would leave Lake Mead still half-full.
Refilling Lake Mead would take another decade (though in practice, both would be gradually filled simultaneously).
That’s assuming the precipitation patterns of the last half-century return, which is by no means a sure thing.
But, about 20 years ago in Arizona I saw a single winter storm erase the accumulated water deficit of a two-year drought. Another overall winter like 1982-1983 would help a lot.
That was one hellacious year for rainfall!
You talking about ‘82/’83? I missed that one.
Was that the year with the two 500-year storms a week apart, that flooded Sky Harbor?
I didn’t get there ‘til ‘84.
Right year. I wasn’t here, yet, either. I heard all about it when I returned Stateside in ‘88.
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