Effect on evaporation of releases from reservoirs on Salt River, Arizona

By means of the energy-budget method, measurements of evaporation losses from four reservoirs on Salt River, Ariz., were determined to range from 57.5 to 69.9 inches for the 12-month period April 1958 to March 1959. Water is withdrawn from Roosevelt Lake at considerable depth and released through three run-of-the-river reservoirs. Because the water released from Roosevelt Lake is cold, evaporation losses from the downstream reservoirs are considerably lower than those from Roosevelt Lake. Evaporation pan coefficients computed for the various reservoirs ranged from 0.53 to 0.65. A base evaporation rate was computed for each reservoir as the evaporation rate that would have occurred had there been no change in energy storage and the net advected energy equalled zero during the year.