CODY, Wyo. - The Buffalo Bill Reservoir is in excellent shape going into the winter thanks to more than a million acre feet of water flowing into it this year, officials said.

At the end of September, Buffalo Bill held 484,400 acre feet of water, 75 percent of its capacity and 11 percent more than the average since 1978.

Last year, the reservoir stored only 417,800 acre feet on Sept. 30.

"The shape of the reservoir is all positive," said Bryant Startin, Superintendent of the Shoshone Irrigation District.

Startin said the total inflow into the lake during the 2008 water year - Oct. 1, 2007 to Sept. 30, 2008 - was nearly 1.17 million acre feet, well above inflows in recent years.

"It's been nine or 10 years since we've had over a million acre feet come in," Startin said.

This year's early-spring estimates predicted below-average runoff, but Startin said a wet spring changed the picture considerably.

In March, the Bureau of Reclamation predicted 600,000 acre feet of runoff into the reservoir during the April-to-July runoff period. But Startin said 427,000 acre feet entered the reservoir in June alone.

In July, John Lawson, area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Buffalo Bill dam, said he thought runoff would be about 950,000 acre feet.

Inflow into the lake after the April-to-July period remained higher than average as well. September's inflow totaled 291,000 acre feet, 10 percent more than the historic average, and more than 110,000 acre feet greater than in September 2007.

While the reservoir will have a good base to start with next spring, Startin said the water situation always is uncertain during the winter.

"You never know until spring how much snow you're going to have," he said. "It would be nice to have another good year."