Although it is too early to predict where the lake will end up for a high this year we are off to an incredible start!

The critical time to get that much needed snowpack in the mountains is December through March.  Although the Water Watch season (October through May) started off slow the spigot turned on late November.

December precipitation was 129%

January precipitation is at 114% of normal and we have another storm barreling down on us today.

The lake saw its lowest level last year in October with a lake level of 4193.2’ msl

The lake came up 0.5’ by December 31’st since that low.  That is much more than normal for that two month period.

We are now sitting at 4194.0’ msl.  That is 0.8’ above our low last year.  Normally we only come up 0.35’ during that period.  So we have come up more than double the rate this winter.

If I was going to make a guess right now we will come up another 1.12’ to 2.2’ between now and when we top off.  If conditions stay wet and above normal precipitation between now and the end of April those numbers may be low.

Remember on an average year that we only come up 2’ from spring runoff and drop 2’ from summer evaporation.

And also remember that the ground water is saturated with lake levels upstream doing very well.  This means the water in the mountains will come down here.

If we continue this wet trend it will be the first time in over 20 years where we had two wet years in a row.  In the past 20 years, when we had a wet year, it was followed by two very dry years.  Could this be the year that breaks the trend?

I hope so.