Lake Powell Still Shrinking – The Second Largest Reservoir in the US at Lowest Level Ever
The second-largest reservoir in the country, Lake Powell, is currently at its lowest elevation since it was filled in the middle of the 1960s. The aerial perspective is depressing. Lake Powell, a crucial part of the western U.S. water supply, is currently only 26 percent full. Since 1967, this is the lowest point. The lake's surface had a water elevation of 3,533.3 feet on August 22, 2022. More than 166 feet lower than "full pool" (elevation 3,700 feet). Parts of Lake Powell are visible in the natural-color satellite photos on this page, taken by the Landsat spacecraft in the summers of 2017 and 2022. The photos from 2017 were taken by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8, while those from 2022 were taken by the Operational Land Imager-2 on Landsat 9. Southeast Utah and northeastern Arizona share a boundary with Lake Powell; the majority of the area depicted is in Utah. Visit the Earth Observatory feature World of Change: Water Level in Lake Powell for a year-by-year ...