Heron and Elephant Butte Lakes

A re-cap on how our sailing lakes did this year.

Elephant Butte Lake suffered from continuing drought and poor spring runoff. Predictions were for dire low-water conditions during the summer of 2006 with the potential for the lake to sink to 3% of capacity and become a glorified river without good ramp access or sailability. This time, however, the clouds on the horizon brought good news with the gift of abundant summer rains. The lake never sank below 9% of capacity and remained fully usable all summer long. The rains continued into fall, with the lake raising almost continuously throughout August, September, October, and November.

Heron Lake also suffered from a sub-par spring runoff, but at least got most of what passes for normal runoff in this part of the world. And, Heron also benefitted from late-summer rains.

Data

Elephant Butte Lake

Elev. (feet) . . . . Storage (acre feet) . . . Date

4,334.82 . . . . . . . 439,541 . . . . . . . Nov. 20
4,333.54 . . . . . . . 424,254 . . . . . . . Nov. 13
4,332.14 . . . . . . . 407,850 . . . . . . . Nov. 6
4,331.24 . . . . . . . 397,510 . . . . . . . Oct. 31
4,327.10 . . . . . . . 351,800 . . . . . . . Sept. 30
4,325.18 . . . . . . . 331,550 . . . . . . . Aug. 31
4,308.50 . . . . . . . 183,870 . . . . . . . July 28 low point
4,339.88 . . . . . . . 503,030 . . . . . . . March 5 high point
4,334.06 . . . . . . . 430,410 . . . . . . . January 1, 2006

Note that the Butte is already recovered above its January 1 level and is within five feet of its maximum level for the spring.

Heron Lake

Elev. (feet) . . . . Storage (acre feet) . . . Date
7,145.85 . . . . . . . 202,691 . . . . . . . Nov. 20
7,147.10 . . . . . . . 207,707 . . . . . . . Nov. 8
7,148.03 . . . . . . . 211,484 . . . . . . . Oct. 24
7,144.46 . . . . . . . 197,203 . . . . . . . Sept. 25
7,143.47 . . . . . . . 193,350 . . . . . . . Sept. 1
7,143.47 . . . . . . . 193,350 . . . . . . . Aug. 29
7,143.29 . . . . . . . 192,653 . . . . . . . July 5
7,143.26 . . . . . . . 192,535 . . . . . . . June 29
71,42.29 . . . . . . . 188,816 . . . . . . . June 4
7,141.09 . . . . . . . 184,270 . . . . . . . May 27
7,135.01 . . . . . . . 162,731 . . . . . . . May 2
7,133.93 . . . . . . . 158,684 . . . . . . . April 27
7,144.29 . . . . . . . 196,496 . . . . . . . Jan. 5