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Lake McConaughy is slowly recovering from seven years of drought that began in 2000. The big lake is nearly 6 feet higher compared to this time last year. The lake is not filling rapidly, but it is gaining after it dropped below one-fourth full in 2005 and officials worried the big lake might actually become empty if a year or two of extreme drought continued in the West. Currently, water flowing into Lake McConaughy is about 18 percent below average for this time of year, according to Kingsley Dam Superintendent Cory Steinke. Up river, the mountain snowpack in the northern North Platte River Basin in Wyoming is 112 percent of average. Farther south, the snowpack is 91 percent normal in the lower fork of the river’s headwaters. Steinke told the board of directors of the Central Public Power and Irrigation District that water running down the North Platte River into McConaughy is around 1,000 cubic feet per second. The average inflow for this time period is about 1,200 cfs. More water is flowing down the South Platte River than a couple years ago, Steinke said. In Colorado, snowpack in the South Platte River Basin above Denver is about normal for this time of year.
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