High good, low bad: Mead in March 2010

Posted on | April 1, 2010 | 1 Comment

There is a joke that my father, a former aerospace engineer, used to tell that applies equally well to water as to planes. There is a jolt on a jet and the pilot announces that the plane has lost one engine but still has three more. They will be a half an hour late landing. Soon, there is a second jolt and the pilot announces that another engine has failed, but they still have two engines and will be an hour late landing. After a third jolt brings the announcement that they still have one engine and will be an hour and a half late landing, an engineer from the cabin cries, “If the fourth engine goes, we’ll be up here all night!”

Water wise, in spite of a mild El Nino winter, it looks like the West may be up here all night. The level of Lake Mead, the major reservoir serving Southern California, Southern Nevada, Arizona and Mexico, continues to drop from a closing elevation in February of 1,103.21 to 1,100.66 at the end of March.

March 2010: 1,100.66

March 2009: 1,107.40

March 2008: 1,115.65

March 2007: 1,125.79

March 2006: 1,139.48

March 2005: 1,147.66

March 2004: 1,138.70

March 2003: 1,153.09

March 2002: 1,172.06

Click here for historical elevations going back to 1935 from the federal Bureau of Reclamation.

Comments

One Response to “High good, low bad: Mead in March 2010”

  1. Ray Walker
    April 2nd, 2010 @ 6:55 am

    CA & NV continues to be “up all night” at their on-going pity party wringing their hands & proclaiming “woe is us”.

    Total BS (bad science) ! CA, NV & the Bureau have been offered a free confidential disclosure of a new non-tributary fresh water Source of a million acre feet a year that is legally available, economically feasible, will not damage any part of their precious environment or damage the water rights of anyone, anywhere ! The new water could be stored/accumulated in Lake Mead to keep it reasonably FULL ! Small instantaneous releases could be made each year to RESTORE the Colorado River Delta … the environmental community is not the least bit interested in a REAL water solution.

    Their answer: More Pity Parties & Rain Dances

    WaterSourceWaterBank waterrdw@yahoo.com

    P.S. A full Lake Mead generates 2000 megawatts of renewable energy each year !

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