Lake Mead Water Levels Haven't Changed!

UPDATE: Lake Mead sent a news release Sunday evening, several hours after News 3 inquired about the readings. In part, it says: "An overnight report, indicating that Lake Mead’s water elevation declined nine feet in one hour was incorrect. Lake Mead’s elevation has remained steady around 1,077 feet for the past 24 hours, as it has for the past several days.

"The Bureau of Reclamation of the Lower Colorado River Region measures lake elevation hourly. Data at 11 p.m. May 23 showed the lake dropped from 1,077.22 feet to 1,068.75 feet and then rose back up to 1,076.76 feet an hour later.

According to the Reclamation’s River Operations Group Manager, the reading Saturday night was incorrect. Officials are aware of the faulty reading and are measuring the elevation manually to correct erroneous values. Due to the holiday weekend, online data may not reflect the corrections immediately."


'We all know Lake Mead is dropping, but a decline of 8 feet in just two days?

How is that possible?

That's what some Southern Nevada water watchers wondered Sunday as one water level reading on an official government daily chart showed Lake Mead's water level had dropped 8 feet in 48 hours -- from 1,076.78 feet on Thursday down to 1,075.13 feet on Friday and down to 1,068.75 feet on Saturday.

The chart shows a drop of 1.65 feet from Thursday to Friday and a whopping 6.38 feet drop from Friday to Saturday.

Check the chart on this website: [link to lakemead.water-data.com]

News 3 staffers scratched their heads Sunday when they received multiple emails about the decline. Surely, a lake filled with boaters would have been literally screaming about such a drastic drop, especially on one of the busiest boating weekends of the summer.

So what was going on? We made some calls. The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the lake, didn't answer and hasn't returned a call. Neither has the National Park Service.

But Las Vegas Valley Water District spokesman Bronson Mack suggested we check another website. We did.

The hourly chart shows just numbers, no fancy graphics. But it shows the lake level at 1,077.50 as of 2 p.m. Sunday. No decline of 8 feet in two days (an actual inch rise from Sunday at midnight) but the gradual drop that has been going on for days, weeks, months and years continues.

Check this: [link to www.usbr.gov]

Article: [link to www.news3lv.com]

Last Edited by AssaultR on 05/24/2015 10:23 PM