Liveblogging the Deluge: Merced River in Yosemite Reaches Flood Stage

This picture is a cheat. I'm not in Yosemite, this picture is from two years ago

I was supposed to be in Yosemite right now. We had scheduled a field studies class today that would have sent us up the Merced River to Yosemite Valley and back, but nature has intruded with an unusual April atmospheric river storm that is setting some daily rainfall records across Central California. San Francisco, for instance, received rain equivalent to an average April in a single day. My backyard rain gauge in the Central Valley has recorded 2.2 inches since yesterday. In 26 years of measuring, there have only been three Aprils where we've received that much in the entire month.

I had already decided to postpone the trip by last Monday when the forecasts called for flooding on the Merced River in Yosemite Valley. In short, the river jumps its banks at the 10 foot level (about 6,000 cubic feet per second). At 12 feet (9,500 cfs), the flooding river covers some of the main roads in the valley. Today's storm is expected to result in a river that crests at 14 feet, or 14,000 cubic feet per second. Even if I had decided to go ahead with the field trip, we would not have reached our goal, because the park service closed Yosemite Valley yesterday. We're going to try and make the trip tomorrow to check out any flood damage, but if the valley floor is still closed, we'll try to see Hetch Hetchy instead.

Yosemite Valley is especially prone to flooding because it is high up in the mountains close to the headwaters of the Merced River, and when rain falls, it falls on mostly barren granite. The water flows into channels very quickly, and the channels gather into the Merced River and Tenaya Creek just as quickly. There are no reservoirs upstream for flood control (nor should there ever be).

If it drives home the point, Yosemite Valley has only been closed a few times in its history, most notably in 1997 during the unprecedented floods of that year, and during a few government shutdowns. It takes a major event to convince the park administration to shut down the iconic valley.

I hope to be back tomorrow with pictures of Yosemite Valley. We'll see what happens! I will update the flood hydrograph in the space below when the river flow peaks.

UPDATE: At 1:00 PM, the river has reached 10,800 cubic feet per second (12.85 feet). If I'm reading the data right (below), this is only the fourth time the flow has reached this level since 1996.

Here is the 1:00 PM report:

Also, here is a link to video of the main road in Yosemite Valley at the moment, courtesy of the Fresno Bee.

UPDATE 2: We've reached 12,100 cubic feet per second as of 5:00PM, and 13.68 feet (10 feet is flood  level), and the flood may be peaking. The discharge only increased by 100 cfs in the last hour.

FINAL UPDATE: It looks like the flood has peaked at 12,100 cfs, as it has been there for two hours. I expect it will now start dropping. I'm hoping the valley will reopen in time for our visit tomorrow. If not, I guess we'll check out Hetch Hetchy!

WELL, OKAY, ONE MORE UPDATE: Yosemite National Park has posted pictures of the flooding today: https://www.facebook.com/pg/YosemiteNPS/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1650167855031490

Liveblogging the Deluge: 2018 Short Version

High water on the Tuolumne River, February 2018, about 15,000 cubic feet per second.

Why "short"? What deluge? Hasn't this been another dry year?

Tuolumne River on January 19, 2018, flow at about 300 cubic feet per second.

If you've been reading over the last year, you would know that I started what I thought would be a short blog series (Liveblogging the Deluge) on what looked like (and almost was) a record-breaking atmospheric storm that hit California last January. The storm hit, and then there was another. And another. Prodigious amounts of snow and rain fell in central and northern California through the end of April, putting an end to California's historically bad five-year drought, and filling the state's dry reservoirs. So much snow accumulated in the drainage of the Tuolumne River that the main reservoir, Don Pedro, was constantly at the edge of overflowing, so the outflow was maintained at near flood-level (averaging 9,000 cubic feet per second, briefly to 15,000 cfs) through July. We really had no chance to see the changes on the floodplain until September.

Tuolumne River on March 25, 2018, flow at about 4,500 cubic feet per second

And then...when the "storm door" was supposed to open in November, barely anything happened. My backyard gauge told the story: October, 0.07", November 1.15", December 0.0". January finally brought an almost normal amount, 3.44", but the next month was one of the driest Februarys ever recorded, with my gauge recording a mere 0.37". Statewide, the snowpack was a mere 20-25% of normal. At Don Pedro Reservoir, there was a lot of water in storage, but realizing that there would be almost no snowmelt, the operators kept the outflow into the lower Tuolumne River at very low levels, about 300 cubic feet per second. They left a minimum of space for emergency flood control.

Tuolumne River, January 19, 2018, flow at 300 cubic feet per second.

And then March happened. The storm door opened in a big way, and three major storms blew through the state raising havoc with floods and mudflows in numerous localities, including some of the areas affected by the horrific fires of last summer (and December, unfortunately). Locally, we received 3.36", but my little town was one of the driest spots in the state. The snow in the Sierra Nevada was measured in feet, including 7-8 feet in a few places.

Tuolumne River on March 25, flow at 4,500 cubic feet per second.

It wasn't a drought ending month, but it took the snowpack from disastrous to merely disappointing. Current levels range from 44% to 66% of normal. And now the operators at Don Pedro Reservoir can expect some runoff amounts that will be semi-normal. That means they'll need a bit more reservoir space....

I noticed the first ramping up of river flows about a week ago, when the discharge was tripled to about 1,000 cubic feet per second. I could hear the river again (the velocity of the water at 300 cfs is very low). But then when I walked the river trail yesterday, the river was raging along at 4,500 cubic feet per second. Not a flood, but a higher level than at almost any point during the entire run of the 2012-2017 drought. The islands and gravel bars that were being used by fisher-people and picnickers were once again underwater. The slough at the west end of the Parkway Trail where I walk was once again flowing. This is good on a number of counts: salmon and other fish will have a better chance of survival and getting to the sea, and the invasive weed river hyacinth will probably not gain root in the upper areas of the river. The river weed choked the slough and parts of the river channel during the drought, smothering out other vegetation, and making life difficult for fish and aquatic wildlife.

Farther afield, the outlook is reasonably good. Most of California's reservoirs are at or well-above normal (flood-damaged Lake Oroville is an exception at 75% of normal). Don Pedro came up at least 8 feet during the storms in March.

While good for the snowpack and reservoirs, the storms did a lot of damage. Roads were washed out in numerous places in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. We almost lost a smaller reservoir on Moccasin Creek. In the end, the "Deluge" was a lot shorter than the one we got last year, but in a year as dry as this, it was good to have a little extra water "in the bank". With the uncertainties related to global warming, and the expectation of future extended droughts, every drop counts.

Liveblogging the Deluge: Perspectives on the Biggest Storm in a Decade, Part Five

We finally got a taste of some of the kinds of squalls that are leading to flooding across much of Northern California. Luckily it was brief, and we have not had problems in our immediate vicinity. The view in the video above is out our front door a few moments after I got home from work, driving in conditions that were much the same as what you can see here.

Radar signal of the storm in the video above, courtesy of  Ryan Hollister @phaneritic

My dear friends who live in hurricane-prone regions are welcome to snicker a bit at my sense of awe at the violence coming from the sky. I live in a dry region, and downpours like this are pretty rare. We got 1.67 inches today, and only six days have had a higher total in the 26 years I've been measuring precipitation in my back yard. That brings our four day storm total to 3.35 inches. Again, that can hardly compare to some of the high numbers coming from the coastal mountains or the Sierra Nevada, but it represents about a quarter of an entire year's rain total in an average year in my village (just over 13 inches in the years I've been measuring).

National Park Service Photo

Meanwhile, the big flood danger in Yosemite has passed as the storm surge topped out at 12.7 feet and subsided a few hours later. Yosemite is in the process of reopening the valley floor to tourism. Highway 140 on the Merced River was closed by mud and rockslides (good pictures at the link). Snow has been falling in the valley and the adjacent high country, which is a good development. We need to build the snowpack to have any hope of putting a dent in the drought.

Dry Creek at around 1,000 cfs yesterday. We'll see how it looks tomorrow at peak runoff. 7,000 cfs is expected.

The Tuolumne River continues to cause some headaches as dam operators try to tread a delicate path between high flows from Don Pedro Reservoir and high flows along Dry Creek, an unconstrained waterway that has been flowing at more than a thousand cubic feet per second for several days. The creek has my undivided attention right now, as flows are expected to crest at more than 7,000 cubic feet per second tomorrow. I hope to get out and snap some pictures.

I have had little to say about the Stanislaus River. New Melones Reservoir is huge, and the Stanislaus is a relatively small river compared to the Tuolumne. As a consequence, the water level in the reservoir has been low throughout the drought. It began this week at 27% of capacity, about 47% of normal for this time of year. The lake has risen about 20 feet this week, and now stands at 31% of capacity (54% of normal).

It's been an interesting week...

Liveblogging the Deluge: Perspectives on the Biggest Flood in a Decade, Part Three

Pictures are emerging from Yosemite Valley! See the update below.

NPS Webcam Photo from Happy Isles at upper end of Yosemite Valley

The flood on the Merced River in Yosemite Valley has crested at 12.7 feet (10,488 cubic feet per second). The highest flow was recorded at 4AM, and the waters are beginning to recede. There are more storms to come in the next few days, but they will be colder, and will start producing snow instead of rain. Although there has been some damage around the valley floor, this has to be seen as one of the best possible outcomes for Yosemite, given the power of this particular atmospheric river storm, and the level of flooding seen elsewhere in Northern California. It is still dangerous out there.

Meanwhile, on the Tuolumne River, releases have begun again from Don Pedro Reservoir, ramping up from almost nothing to 5,320 cubic feet per second. The operators are trying to modulate flows from Don Pedro with the unconstrained flows from Dry Creek to prevent flooding in the low-lying areas of Modesto downstream from the confluence of the two waterways. Flooding commences at about 9,000 cfs in that area. Inflows at Don Pedro are around 15,000 cfs right now (*see the new update below); if the dam didn't exist, the river in Modesto would be approaching 20,000 cfs.

There is a lot going on with the flooding around Northern California, and Southern California is finally getting some precipitation as well. I've been concentrating on the activity on the Merced, Tuolumne, and Stanislaus River drainage basins. Updates will follow as conditions warrant.

UPDATE (1/9/17 11:20AM): The LA Times has a pretty good roundup of flood news from around the state:  http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sierra-storm-20170108-story.html.

UPDATE (1/9/17 11:30AM): The inflow to Don Pedro Reservoir actually reached nearly 38,000 cubic feet per second  yesterday! Water level in the dam jumped 7 feet to 796 feet, for a total of 10 feet since the storm began. The lake gained just over 100,000 acre-feet, to 1,620,000 acre-feet. The lake would overflow at 830 feet, or just over 2 million acre-feet.

UPDATE (1/9/17 12:50PM): Yosemite National Park has posted some photos of flood related effects in the Yosemite Valley area. Here are a few of them...

NPS photo

NPS Photo

NPS photo

UPDATE (1/9/17 7:30PM): At about 3PM, the Merced River receded below flood stage in Yosemite Valley. It's a relief that the flood wasn't worse, especially given greater runoff to the north where there have been some really serious problems during the day. Another storm is moving in, but it's colder and will be mostly snow, which is a very good thing.

UPDATE (1/9/17 9:00PM): As of this evening, Don Pedro Reservoir has surpassed the 800 foot elevation, gaining 5 feet to 801.84 feet, for a gain of another 50,000 acre-feet to 1,690,000 acre-feet. That's about 83% of capacity.

Liveblogging the Deluge: Perspectives on the Biggest Flood in a Decade, Part Two

Check back for updates at the end of this blog...

First off, let me emphasize that I am writing almost exclusively about the central Sierra Nevada and adjacent Great Valley, particularly the drainage of the Merced, Tuolumne, and Stanislaus Rivers. I say this because some very serious things are happening farther to the north, and flooding is occurring in a number of places. If you live in those areas, you need very much to be listening to emergency response officials, and not reading random blogs!

Screen capture of Yosemite Falls from video on NPS Facebook Page

That being said, it looks like we have good news emerging from the storm. Although the rain has been heavy at times, it did not reach the apocalyptic levels that seemed possible earlier in the week. The Merced River in Yosemite Valley is certainly rising towards, and will exceed, flood stage (below), but not nearly to the extent that had been predicted in the previous week.

Early predictions had suggested discharges in the range of 20,000 cubic feet per second, but the latest projection is pointing more towards 9,000 cfs (below). This will raise the river level to nearly 12 feet, and that will inundate some roadways, but nothing like the floods of 1997 when wide parts of the valley floor were under 8-10 feet of floodwaters. That's good news.

There is also good news indicated by the actions of the watermasters at Don Pedro Reservoir on the Tuolumne River. Two days ago, a lot of water was being released from the reservoir, trying to make room for possibly catastrophic river flows. Flows were up to 10,000 cubic feet per second for a while (see some pictures here). This morning, I checked the flow (below), and it has dropped back to the usual level of several hundred cubic feet per second. This means that the dam operators are confident that they can capture and save the runoff and are not worried about the dam being overtopped the way it was in 1997 (the damage from that event is still visible 20 years later). (*see new update below)

Discharge of the Tuolumne River at LaGrange Jan 8, 2017

The river surge will have some benefits: River Hyacinth, an invasive aquatic plant has been choking the channel of the Tuolumne River during the last few years. The surge of the artificial flood has no doubt cleansed the channel of the river in many places. A lot of silt that has been smothering the best spots for salmon eggs has probably been swept way, and new sand bars have perhaps been formed. Although some minor flood damage may have taken place, there is a lot of good too.

River hyacinth in the lower Tuolumne River in 2015. Those mats of green aren't supposed to be there.

The other area of concern is Dry Creek. It is an unconstrained drainage, and for a time it seemed possible to have a record flow of 8,000 cubic feet per second. Those projections have backed off a bit too, but the expected 5,600 cfs will still be the highest runoff that I've seen, and some minor flooding damage will be possible in Modesto. Notice in the diagram below that there are three peaks predicted.

Source: http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/graphicalRVF.php?id=DCMC1

I've been thinking about something else today. Will this spell the end of the drought that has afflicted California since 2011? The short answer is no, it will not. The storm is building reservoir levels to more healthy levels, but filled reservoirs are but a single metric in determining droughts. This warm storm has melted the snowpack, and the snowpack is what is critical to sufficient supplies during the dry summer season. The good news is that the storms later in the week will be much colder, and the snowpack may be building up. The storm does nothing about global warming, which will continue to put a "finger on the scale" each year in California towards continued droughts.

Even more concerning is the fact that the storm will only help a bit to recharge the groundwater of the Great Valley. We have developed a huge deficit in groundwater storage during the drought, as agricultural interests have pumped increasing amounts of groundwater to replace the missing irrigation supply. Even if we have the foresight to put water back into the ground, some of the storage space has been lost due to compaction. This becomes obvious when one observes the amount of subsidence of the ground surface throughout much of the San Joaquin Valley (the southern portion of the Great Valley).

Source: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article31527953.html

UPDATE (1/8/17 4:50PM): The story on the drop in the discharge on the Tuolumne River is a bit more nuanced than I suggested above. I've been notified that they are trying to modulate the flow with the high discharge in Dry Creek to prevent flooding downstream of the confluence of the two watercourses in Modesto. In other words, flooding occurs on the Tuolumne at about 9,000 cfs. Dry Creek may contribute as much as 6,000 cfs tomorrow, so they've cut back on the flow of the Tuolumne to compensate.

UPDATE  (1/8/17 8:50PM): The Merced River in Yosemite Valley has just reached flood stage at 10 feet (6,600 cfs). The river is expected to rise another 1-2 feet before subsiding.

From https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ca/nwis/uv?site_no=11266500

UPDATE (1/8/17 11:20 PM): Among all the other stories of the day, word comes from Calaveras Big Trees State Park that the beloved "Tunnel Tree" has fallen in the windstorm. This is sad in one way, but it's clear that these kind of "touristy" developments like carving big holes in the base of the tree is damaging to them. We are changing nature for our own amusement instead of appreciating them for what they are. It's an unfortunate parallel that the Orca in the "Blackfish" story died this week as well.

Liveblogging the Deluge: Perspectives on the Biggest Flood in a Decade, Part One

See updates at end of post... BTW, if you are on the scene in places like Yosemite Valley, please send photos or updates! I will gladly post them here.

Printable PDF of current conditions can be found at this link 

It's clear by now that I am fascinated by the current atmospheric river storm that is blanketing the state of California with precipitation from one end of the state to the other. I'm right in the thick of it, in the Great Valley, sandwiched by mountain ranges that will be getting rain amounts measured not in inches, but in feet. On this blog, I've already talked about the last record-breaking storm, the 1997 event that caused unprecedented damage across California, but especially in Yosemite and along the Tuolumne River. I also blogged about the preparations being made in anticipation of the storm: the operators of Don Pedro Reservoir have ramped up the flow of the Tuolumne River to near flood stage to make room for storm runoff. Then, last evening, we had a spectacularly clear view of the Sierra Nevada from the valley floor, covered with snow, and seeming to wait for the coming storm event. From here on, I'll be liveblogging, sort of, the storm (it will be separate posts at times).

Radar of precipitation in Central California as of 8:00 PM Saturday. Source: Intellicast

And now the storm has arrived. Atmospheric river storms are linear streams of moisture-rich air coming northward out of the tropics (they have been called Pineapple Express storms at times). In "normal" front-related storms, the period of precipitation is fairly limited as the front sweeps through the state. Atmospheric river storms are different; they spray the state with storms that can last for days, and in some extreme examples, weeks. They are also warm storms. The snow level can reach very high elevations so that rain falls on the snowpack, melting vast amounts of ice. It all adds up to a potential for the worst kinds of floods in California.

I don't know what all is going to happen in the next few days, but I want to establish some baselines so it can be understood just what the storm means for California and our water situation. We have been in the grip of a crippling drought since 2011, and reservoirs across the state have been at historical, even catastrophic, low levels. The first diagram in this post provides a benchmark to track the changes in the next few days. It's already been a fairly good precipitation year, as some reservoirs already sit at 100% or more of their desired levels. A few are still very low, including especially New Melones Reservoir on the Stanislaus River just north of me. It is only at 27% of capacity. Lake McClure on the Merced River below Yosemite Valley is about where it is supposed to be at 47% of capacity. My special river, the Tuolumne which also flows out of Yosemite National Park, is a bit too close to full at 76% of normal. If the storm dumps too much rain in the park, it has a small chance of overflowing the floodgates in an uncontrolled manner as it did in 1997. That's the reason the dam operators ramped up flows in the last two days.

Source: California Nevada River Forecast Center

It's going to be especially interesting to see how the storm predictions pan out. The flood hydrograph above is the expected outcome in Yosemite Valley. The red dotted line is flood stage (at 10 feet, or around 7,000 cubic feet per second). Earlier predictions for the flood peak have wavered between 15,000 cfs and 24,000 cfs. The high end prediction would be of 1997 magnitude, but even the low prediction would be enough to flood valley roads and possibly close the park. The high flow history at Pohono Bridge in the valley is shown below:

Historic Crests

(1) 23.43 ft on 01/03/1997
(2) 23.43 ft on 01/02/1997
(3) 21.52 ft on 12/23/1955
(4) 20.98 ft on 11/19/1950
(5) 20.10 ft on 12/11/1937
(6) 16.96 ft on 12/23/1964
(7) 13.11 ft on 04/11/1982
(8) 13.01 ft on 01/13/1980

The current outlook is for a peak of 21,590 cfs (19.7 feet).  If it happens, it would be the 6th highest flow ever recorded. As you might expect, I'll be watching this one closely.

Flood hydrograph for Dry Creek. Source: http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/graphicalRVF.php?id=DCMC1

The other local river that has my undivided attention is Dry Creek. It's not a well-known waterway outside our region, but it is capable of causing some havoc at times. Although it doesn't have a vast drainage basin (it arises in the Sierra Nevada foothills in the Mother Lode), it has no dams or flood control structures. It is therefore very responsive to variations in storm intensity. I've seen it flowing at 3,000 or 4,000 cfs, but the prediction as of this evening is a bit ominous: it may peak at 8,400 cubic feet per second. Let's be clear what that means: yesterday, the Tuolumne River was flowing at 8,000 cfs, and that's considered very close to flood stage. For the Tuolumne River. A minor tributary to the Tuolumne River may be as big as the Tuolumne, but in a channel that is many times smaller. I will be out and about on Monday to get pictures, but to set a baseline of sorts, here's how the creek normally looks at the Oakdale-Waterford Highway bridge:

Dry Creek on Dec. 17, 2016 just prior to a previous high water event late last year.

So, here is where we stand with the atmospheric river storm in my backyard. We've received about a half inch of rain today, adding towards an expected 4 inches by the end of the week. If things transpire that way, it will represent about a third of the precipitation expected in my town over the course of an entire normal year. We of course are in the driest part of Central California (aside from the desert east of the Sierra Nevada), so literally everywhere else will be getting a lot more. As I've been saying in my previous blogs, be safe out there! Don't travel if you can avoid it, don't try crossing flooded bridges, and don't try walking either. If you are headed into the mountains, imagine being stranded by yourself for a few days and pack accordingly, especially with warm clothing and extra food rations. My distant relatives, the Donners, failed to do that in the Sierra Nevada in 1847, and look how they ended up. If authorities issue a flood warning, take it seriously. They're getting their advice from scientific professionals, and that still means something.

UPDATE: Officials closed Yosemite Valley roads and visitor services as of yesterday, and will reopen after the flooding subsides.
UPDATE: (although more like an addendum) For comparison's sake, here is where the reservoirs of the state were at a year ago:

A huge difference!
UPDATE (1/8, 1:52 AM): Yes, up late, listening to intensified rainfall. Gauge has picked up another .40 inches in two hours.

UPDATE  (1/8, 10:18 AM): Good morning! There was another 0.20" in the backyard gauge this morning, and now we are in a lull between major storms (most of the action is north of here at the moment). Another 2/3 inch is expected later today on valley floor. There is better news in Yosemite; the expected flood is now projected to be less than catastrophic, with a projected high flow of 9,600 cubic feet per second. Yesterday, the projection was twice that. It's still above flood level by 2 feet, but would not cover valley roads. Several more inches of warm rain is expected (~4"), but tomorrow the precipitation will turn to snow, and that is a good development.

A Wet Day in Yosemite Valley; "Spring" Comes REALLY Early

October is nominally an autumn month, a time of falling leaves and low-flowing rivers after a dry summer and above-average temperatures. In Yosemite Valley, the waterfalls are dry. It might not be the best time of year for drawing tourists to the valley, but it's a fine time for a field trip. Well, maybe...

It's a given that if one schedules a field trip and reserves a bus months in advance that the weather is going to be a wild card. And it was definitely wild. The weather forecasts all week pointed to a 100% chance of rain essentially all day, and as we left town, the rain was indeed falling. All the way up the hill, all the way into the valley. I gave lectures from the bus, watching water pour out of the sky. I had 30 students, some of whom were expecting to see Yosemite Valley for the first time in their lives. I was clenching my teeth, worried that we would arrive in the valley and the walls would be hidden behind the clouds. We arrived at Tunnel View, and I was slightly relieved to see that the cliffs were just barely distinguishable through the rain squalls (see the top picture). At least we could say that we saw something. We got back into the bus, to go make more stops in the rain. Then something wondrous happened.

I glanced behind me as I climbed into the bus and realized that the rain had stopped, and that the cliffs of Yosemite Valley were emerging from the storm. We got back out, and started enjoying the gift of a 90 minute break in the storm. The valley was a glorious sight for those few precious minutes. El Capitan, the 3,000 granite monolith, loomed high above us.

Fall colors were visible all across the valley; oaks, cottonwoods and dogwoods were all at their late season best. We here in California can't compete with the pageantry of the show in the eastern United States (or even the aspen groves of the eastern Sierra Nevada), but ours comes later, and the trees back east don't have a backdrop of stunning granite cliffs.

The most incredible moment of the day came as we realized that with the rain, every waterfall in the valley was flowing. And not just flowing, but surging. Waterfalls were coming from cliffs that never have waterfalls. It could have been spring of a wet year. There was a lot of water falling from the skies above Yosemite today.

Yosemite Falls were especially spectacular. I strolled past lower Yosemite Creek, and it was flooding.

The Merced River was surging as well. It was spilling over its banks, which was enough to get me on my phone to check the flows today. It was pretty impressive. Normal flow for this time of year is about 30 cubic feet per second. A week ago the river was running 100 cubic feet per second. With two big storms this week, the river has risen to over 3,000 cubic feet per second! In the last year, a fairly good year for precipitation, the flow of the Merced exceeded 3,000 cfs only a few times.

It was an impressive day, and a really blessing to have a break in the storm. After 90 minutes, the rain squalls returned, and followed us most of the way home.

The River Lives Again...Flows Increased on the Lower Tuolumne

I took a stroll on the Tuolumne River Parkway trail for the first time in several weeks, and something was strange. I heard the river. One needs to understand just how strange that really is. For the last four years, we've been in a grips of a horrific drought (and still are for that matter). The general pattern is that the watermasters at Don Pedro Reservoir upstream have tried to hang onto as much water as possible, since so little was available. As a consequence, downstream flows have been highly restricted, no matter the season.

I think they got a bulk deal on signs. The cliff is maybe 20 feet high.

For most of the time I've been exploring the trails by the Tuolumne River, flows have been on the order of 200-300 cubic feet per second, enough to keep the river flowing, but little more. Such low flows have promoted the growth of invasive River Hyacinth, and warm water has made life very difficult for the few salmon that can make it this far upstream. Predation of the salmon fingerlings has been more prevalent, as the small fish have fewer places to hide at low flows.

So it was a surprise to hear the river. It wasn't quite a roar, but the currents of the river were strong, and the water was flooding into channels that have been dry for years. As soon as I got home, I checked the USGS riverflow website and saw that for weeks, the flow has indeed been at 200 cubic feet per second, about 100 cfs less than average for this time of year. But two days ago, the river discharge was ramped up to nearly 3,000 cubic feet per second.

Source: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ca/nwis/uv?site_no=11289650

I don't know the reasons for the increased flows, and now, a day later, they've already slowed the discharge to less than 1,000 cfs. The reservoir is currently 64% full, about 88% of what would be normal for this time of year.

Of course it was a Sunday afternoon and the temperatures were unseasonably warm at 85 degrees. Lots of people were hanging out by the river, and some were swimming in the 50 degree water. I've done that in the Colorado River, and 50 degrees is not comfortable. It was truly worrisome to see children playing in the extremely cold river with strong currents just inches from where they were splashing (and of course no life vests). It's not hard to see why drownings happen in Sierra rivers every year.

 It was nice to see the river come alive again, for whatever short time (and reason) it was happening.

PS: I'm told by the folks at the Tuolumne River Trust that it was a pulse flow to clear out hyacinth, and to assist salmon fingerlings to make the journey downstream.