Current Storage and Elevation
Why storage and elevation look different
Current Operation
Monthly Release - Last 12 Months
Daily Release - Last 30 Days
Total release water-year to date:
Implied full water-year release at recent pace:YTD release + (remaining WY days × average daily release over last 7/30 days)
Based on last 30 days: --
Based on year-to-date pace: --
Implied current month release at recent pace:
Evaporation
Lake Mead’s local daily reservoir series in this project currently includes elevation, storage, and release, but not a daily evaporation time series comparable to Lake Powell. For basin context, the Bureau of Reclamation’s Hoover Dam FAQ gives an estimated annual Lake Mead evaporation of about 800,000 acre-feet.1
The Lower Colorado Region also publishes mainstream reservoir evaporation work for Lake Mead, Lake Mohave, and Lake Havasu, but that is not yet wired into this page as a daily local series.2
Current Operational Context
Lake Mead is the terminal storage reservoir of the Colorado River system before the mainstem deliveries to Arizona, California, Nevada, and Mexico. Its level now has multiple operational meanings at once: Lower Basin shortage tiers, hydropower limits at Hoover Dam, the formal 895 ft dead pool for downstream releases, and the lower 875 ft intake floor that preserves Southern Nevada municipal access below Hoover dead pool.
This page is meant as a compact working reference: current storage and elevation, the distance from critical Mead operating thresholds, and the recent pace of releases through Hoover Dam.
- 1
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Hoover Dam FAQ, Lake Mead. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/faqs/lakefaqs.html ↩︎
- 2
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region, Mainstream Evaporation and Riparian Evapotranspiration report. https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/4200Rpts/LCRBEvapReport/evapreport.html ↩︎