Last Flow Prediction for the Season
Posted July 27, 2011 by Gregg Armstrong, Co-FounderHello everyone,
This will be the final flow prediction for this season. Dam controlled rivers are beginning their consistent summer release patterns and will flow well through August and into September. The South Fork and Middle Fork will continue through October.
Free flowing, non-dam controlled rivers are finally running out of excess water from melting snows and will no longer have adequate flows for rafting. The final hold out for these rivers is the Merced. Our last trip there is scheduled for this coming Sunday, July 31.
Each week we have poured over 2011 water content reports from the Department of Water Resources to find out how much water is contained in high elevation snow. We have watched weather and temperatures to determine what speed the snow will melt. We have also poured over records we have kept for 35 years that indicate daily flows for all California rivers. After combining all of this information we have made our best guesses each week and it looks like we did not do too bad! Check out the flow report (above).
From this point forward we will see above normal releases on the South Fork, Middle Fork, North Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Cherry Creek. When we say “above normal” we mean 10-20% more than what we normally see in the summer time. This of course is due to the fact that this past winter has been so generous and some remaining snow is still feeding the rivers and reservoirs, along with an abundance of ground water seepage.
This year has turned out to be one of the most interesting and exciting rafting seasons we have had in 49 years of rafting. If you have not had a chance to enjoy it, give us a call and we will set you up on any one of our 5 most popular rivers!
Gregg Armstrong
Owner, All-Outdoors