The Bureau of Reclamation is announcing a meeting concerning the Buffalo Bill Reservoir Water Information that will take place on April 4th at 1PM. in the Fagerberg Building at Northwest College in Powell.
The meeting at Northwest College will be centered around discussions of current water supply, conditions of the water supply, as well as the 2024 snowmelt runoff forecast.
The Buffalo Bill Reservoir, just outside of Cody, provides irrigation water to over 95,000 acres and has a storage capacity of 646,000 acre-feet. It’s the main source of water for many communities in the Big Horn Basin and it’s power generation provides electricity to thousands of homes.
Currently the snow totals for the Cowboy State are reading 99% of median with a basin high of 122% and a basin low of 55%. Last year the state was at 121%, and at 86% in 2022, according to the Water Resource Data System and Wyoming State Climate Office. Snow totals for the Big Horn Basin, which is for Park County, is at 87 percent median for March 18, 2024, the latest snow totals to date. This time last year, the Big Horn Basin was at 89 percent.
Melting snow packs feed the North and South Forks of the Shoshone River, which feeds directly into the Buffalo Bill Reservoir located six miles upstream from the town of Cody.
Park County is in a “moderate” drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor website.
