Lake Chapala has benefited in what has turned out to be an atypical rainy season. During August, normally the height of the summer wet period, the elevation level dropped by seven centimeters.
And breaking with normal weather patterns, for the first time since 2006 precipitation has continued throughout November rather than ceasing during the early weeks of October. Data released by the National Water Commission on November 21 showed the lake standing at 47.5 percent of its full capacity, with a volume of 375.1 billion cubic meters (3,751 Mm3) of water spread over 102,398 hectares of lakebed area. Chapala has regained 97 centimeters of the 1.45 meter loss in elevation registered during the 2012-2013 dry season. That is almost double the rate of recuperation reported last year.