Pathfinder Reservoir is located in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Wyoming
Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
on the
North Platte River
The North Platte River is a major tributary of the Platte River and is approximately long, counting its many curves.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 21, 2011 I ...
between
Casper and
Rawlins. It sits 47 miles (76 km) southwest of Casper, in
Carbon County and
Natrona County. The reservoir was created by
Pathfinder Dam and has a storage capacity of . The shoreline consists of 117 miles (188 km). Much of the water used to serve the 335,000 acre (1360 km
2)
North Platte Project is stored here. Some of the water in the reservoir is released to satisfy other water rights and to operate power plants downstream of the reservoir. Much of the Pathfinder Reservoir is included in the
Pathfinder National Wildlife Refuge. Pathfinder Reservoir is the site of the only established population of the
Macedonian Ohrid Trout (S. letnica) in the United States.
Climate
According to the
Köppen Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
system, Pathfinder Reservoir has a
cold semi-arid climate
Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...
, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded at Pathfinder Reservoir was on July 14, 1925, July 12-13, 1954, July 22, 1960, and July 7-9, 1989, while the coldest temperature recorded was on January 17, 1930.
See also
*
List of largest reservoirs of Wyoming
References
External links
*
Pathfinder Reservoir bottom topography map
Reservoirs in Wyoming
Lakes of Carbon County, Wyoming
Lakes of Natrona County, Wyoming
{{Wyoming-geo-stub