SANDPOINT - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to begin drafting Lake Pend Oreille on Sept. 21.

A pool elevation of 2,061 feet above sea level is expected to be maintained until that date, said Joel Fenolio, a water resources engineer for the corps. The corps anticipates reaching 2,051.5 feet in early November.

Between January and March flexible winter operations - fluctuating the lake between 2,051-2,056 feet for power generation purposes - could go into effect. However, cultural site preservation projects could limit those operations.

"It's looking like it could limit the lake elevation to 2,054-2,055 (feet). We're still trying to work out the details with the construction crews on that," Fenolio said.

Fenolio vaguely referred to the work as bank mitigation projects near Priest River, but said he didn't have any further information about the proposed work.

Katherine Rowden of the National Weather Service in Spokane said there was plenty of precipitation in the Pend Oreille watershed, which extends into western Montana. However, temperatures were well above average last winter.

"It was a really unusual winter. We got a lot of water, but it all ran off during the winter," Rowden said.

There was hope that the watershed could make up for the losses with a wet June, but that hope evaporated with record-hot temperatures.

"It was near-record to record-dry in the Pend Oreille watershed," said Rowden. "So we lost our chance to catch up on spring precip after the snow left early."

Moreover, weather conditions also broke evaporation records dating back to 1985, Rowden said.

Rowden said the region's drought is forecasted to continue and possibly intensify. The months of September through November are expected have above-average temperatures and below-normal precipitation.

Last winter was classified as a mild El Nino and Rowden said those conditions could escalate this winter.

"A lot of models are predicting it to be above a strong El Nino," she said.

But even with those predictions, the corps does not anticipate Lake Pend Oreille won't reach its summer pool elevation in 2016. Fenolio said there would have to be virtually no snow throughout a basin that is quite vast.

"I'm not saying it's an impossibility. I'm saying it's highly unlikely," he said. "It would be a complete outlier."