Lake Mead increases, but storage shortages remain

Lake Mead has begun recovering from its autumn lows, following substantial precipitation and improved Colorado River inflows.

Reclamation’s November 11 update confirms that Mead rose approximately 0.8 feet between November 5 and November 10. The observed level is still far below historical operating elevations, and the recent gains do not eliminate the Basin’s accumulated storage deficit.

Federal daily accounting supports an approximate 93,000 acre-foot (AF) gain for November 1–10, measured as the sum of reported daily storage changes.

The figures suggest that net gains were slightly larger than the volume released at Glen Canyon during this period.

However, Hoover releases, pumping, evaporation, and bank-storage adjustments together offset much of that inflow.

Therefore, the reservoir’s November 1-to-November 10 endpoint storage difference was approximately 88,000 AF; the approximately 93,000 AF figure includes the change recorded for November 1 relative to October 31. [1]

Lake Mead’s short-term recovery is real, but the 2027 federal reductions remain in place.

Most importantly, the net intervening gain calculated below Glen Canyon Dam is not a measured Virgin River or Muddy River volume. It includes the combined effects of tributary inflows, other gains and losses, and accounting uncertainty.

[1] These are different time boundaries, not contradictory estimates.