Aspen Journalism is compiling a data dashboard highlighting metrics of local public interest, updated weekly.
Local streams are running below average
At Stillwater, located upstream of Aspen, the Roaring Fork River ran at 26.6 cfs on Sept. 10, or 54.3% of average, down from last week when the river ran at 32.7 cfs and 68.1% of average.
Water through the tunnel that sends Roaring Fork flows east of the Continental Divide dropped from 114 cfs on July 16 to 40.5 cfs on July 23, down to 2.1 cfs on Aug. 27. It went up to 8.1 cfs on Sept. 10.
The USGS sensor below Maroon Creek recorded the Fork running at 132 cfs on Sept. 10, or 91% of average, down from 154 cfs and 104.1% of average, on Sept. 4.
At Emma, below the confluence with the dam-controlled Fryingpan, the Sept. 10 streamflow of 382 cfs represented about 80.4% of average. That’s down from 501 cfs on Sept. 4 and from 108.4% of average.
Meanwhile, the Crystal River above Avalanche Creek, which is not impacted by dams or transbasin diversions, flowed at 88 cfs or 67.1% of average. Last week, the river ran at 113 cfs, or 95% of average.
The Colorado River ran at 2,310 cfs at Glenwood Springs, or 97.5% of average, on Sept. 10, down from 2,450 cfs last week, while the Colorado flowed at 3,310 cfs near the Colorado-Utah stateline, or 89% of average.
Aspen Journalism is compiling real time streamflow data. You can find all the featured stations from the dashboard with their real-time streamflow on this webpage.
Lake Powell’s water levels keep declining
Lake Powell‘s water levels began their seasonal rise in mid-March as warming temperatures initiated snowmelt, after the reservoir in the winter dropped to its lowest level on record since filling. Water levels peaked in early July and are now slowing decreasing. On Sept. 10, the reservoir was 37.76% full (based on updated 2017-18 sedimentation data). That’s down from Sept. 4, when the nation’s second-largest reservoir was at 37.95%.
Last year, on July 1, 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation revised its data on the amount of water stored in Lake Powell, with a new, lower tally taking into account a 4% drop in the reservoir’s total available capacity between 1986 and 2018 due to sedimentation. Aspen Journalism in July published a story explaining the that drop in storage due to sedimentation. We will be now using the 2017-18 sedimentation data only.
On Sept. 10, 2022, the reservoir was 25.11% full.
On Sept. 10, Lake Powell’s elevation reached 3,573.8 feet, or 126.3 feet from full pool, down from 3,574.3 feet on Sept. 4. Last year, on Sept. 10, the reservoir reached 3,530.29 feet in elevation, or 169.71 feet from full pool.
The “minimum power pool” for turbines generating hydropower at the Glen Canyon Dam is 3,490 feet, and 3,525 feet has been set as a buffer to ensure that the reservoir and the turbines can continue to function properly.
High air temperatures mostly remain above average
High air temperatures at the Aspen airport went from 83°F on Sept. 1 to 72°F on Sept. 4 before going back up to 80°F on Sept. 6, which is about nine degrees above average. Meanwhile, low temperatures dropped from 43°F on Sept. 1 to 38°F on Sept. 5.
Clean air in Aspen
The air quality in Aspen was “good.” The AQI index for ozone ranged from 32 on Sept. 8 to 46 on Sept. 6.
