John PotterChannel 2 News
For skiers this year, it wasn't the ‘the greatest snow on earth,' it was the ‘latest snow on earth.' And now that snow is rapidly feeding reservoirs.
In Nevada, California and Utah, it was the payoff for enduring a brutally long winter. In the Sierra, the snow banks were still so high in June it looked like January.
The big snow in Utah will become a lot of water down at Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir near Las Vegas. "This month we're going up and we're going up quite quickly," says marina owner Gail Kaiser.
It's a refreshing change, after more than a decade of drought that left Lake Mead with half the water it once held. The white ring circling the shore shows how high the water once was. As the level dropped, one marina had to be moved again and again to keep boats in the receding water. "It's sad when you're watching it go down and go down and then with the changes its like such a drastic change to be going up so fast."
For water lovers, Lake Mead is a recreational oasis in the Nevada desert. But the long southwestern drought began stirring worries that the days of water sports could be numbered. "High is certainly better than low. We have more beaches when it's high. More places to go," says Jeff Hayden.
But Lake Mead, created by Hoover Dam, is important for more than just boating. It's a major water supply for the cities of the southwest like Las Vegas. Yet, authorities are not ready to declare the long drought over. "We've gotten an extra year to see what happens next year and that's really all it is. If we get another really bad year next year we'll be right back where we started from," says Jeff Entsminger of Nevada Water Authority.
As a matter of fact, once all the runoff from that melting mountain snow reaches Lake Mead, the water level will still be only 56% of capacity. But still in the mountains and on water – a season to remember.
