BOULDER CITY, Nev. (KTNV) — As the temperatures warm up across the West, all eyes remain on the water levels at lakes Powell and Mead.
Experts say there is still plenty of snowpack to add to the Colorado River as well. Even on a windy Monday, people still want to visit Lake Mead.
"From a far view, it is very beautiful," said a student from California visiting Lake Mead, Ethan Gao. He says seeing how low the water is was a surprise.
"After approaching, it is a shock to see how low it is," he said.
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Despite the water levels appearing low to visitors, the water is actually going up.
The water levels at Lake Mead have slowly been on the rise since late April, sitting at 1,055 feet. This is 10 feet above what it was at this time last year. A recent report expected it to be at 1,060 ft. at the end of July.
Up the river at Lake Powell, the level is rising drastically sitting at 3,577 ft., up nearly 40 ft. from this time a year ago.
The water is coming from snow in the Rockies.
"Snowpack still looks great," said Russell Danielson with the National Weather Service. "The majority of Colorado is 90 percentile for snowpacks, so it's well above normal."
Danielson is a meteorologist form the National Weather Service in Boulder, Colorado about the snow that will eventually melt.
"We have continued to be quite wet, and even in the past few days in June we have had a few inches of snow up in the mountains that has helped the snowpack here," he said.
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Danielson says typically by June 21, the snow has melted, but with the snow still in the mountains, that could mean even more water in the Colorado River.
"Now we have flipped to where we are 90 degrees or close to it, so the rest of June will melt that snowpack quickly," he said.
The warmer temperatures means melting snow and some evaporation. The coming months will be something to watch for both lakes.
"Maybe because of this year's rainfall, [the water levels] may increase a little bit," Gao said.
Meanwhile, visitors and locals wonder how much the continued moisture will help.
