By Steven Goddard
From The Declining Spring Snowcover Department
Yesterday afternoon, the Cache La Poudre River set its June 12 stream flow record flowing through Fort Collins, Colorado. At 1:30 and 2:45 PM, the river hit 5,600 cubic feet per second, which broke the previous record of 5,540 feet per second set in 1983. This is normally the week of peak flow for the year.
USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 10:15 MDT 8.00 3770 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 10:30 MDT 8.02 3790 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 10:45 MDT 8.19 4010 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 11:00 MDT 8.26 4110 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 11:15 MDT 8.41 4310 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 11:30 MDT 8.49 4420 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 11:45 MDT 8.65 4650 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 12:00 MDT 8.68 4690 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 12:15 MDT 8.73 4770 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 12:30 MDT 8.88 4990 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 12:45 MDT 9.00 5170 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 13:00 MDT 9.02 5200 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 13:15 MDT 9.04 5230 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 13:30 MDT 9.27 5600 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 13:45 MDT 9.21 5500 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 14:00 MDT 9.22 5520 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 14:15 MDT 9.18 5450 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 14:30 MDT 9.25 5570 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 14:45 MDT 9.27 5600 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 15:00 MDT 9.25 5570 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 15:15 MDT 9.24 5550 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 15:30 MDT 9.25 5570 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 15:45 MDT 9.19 5470 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 16:00 MDT 9.19 5470 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 16:15 MDT 9.15 5410 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 16:30 MDT 9.18 5450 USGS 06752260 2010-06-12 16:45 MDT 9.04 5230
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwisweb/data/img/USGS.06752260.04.00060..20100605.20100612.log.0.p50.gif
The height maxed out at 9.27 feet
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwisweb/data/img/USGS.06752260.02.00065..20100605.20100612..0.p50.gif
I took some video of it on Tuesday when it was at 4,000 cfs.
The flood was the result of a long, cold, snowy winter/spring – followed by a week of hot weather – followed by 48 hours of heavy rain and snow in the mountains. More heavy rain is forecast over the next 24 hours.
Since the start of the water year (Oct. 1) Colorado has been very cold.
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/hprcc/WaterTDeptHPRCC.png
Two weeks ago, The Huffington Post reported :
Global Warming Study Predicts Hotter, Drier Summers In Colorado
Unfortunately, we didn’t have a summer last year. It was cold and rained all summer long. This weekend’s high temperature has been 51F.
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/hprcc/JJA09TDeptHPRCC.png
———————————————————————————————————————-
“Some people just don’t know when to quit”
It has been pouring rain all night and it may exceed the June 21, 1983 record, but will probably not beat the April 30, 1999 mark – which was 10.46 ft, and 7,710 cfs
[and title now corrected ~ ctm]
Piers was on it;
http://www.weatheraction.com/displayarticle.asp?a=204&c=5
Hide the Second Amendment.
===================
Unfortunately, we didn’t have a summer last year. It was cold and rained all summer long. This weekend’s high temperature has been 51F.
Ah, but you are talking about weather, while they are talking about climate. Have you not seen that we just had the hottest May ever?
Whereas, talking about climate in Attica, Greece, this is a hot five days for June. We are supposed to hit 39C on Thursday. The 36C of today has not materialized yet, at 3:30pm, stuck at 31C, but that is climate for you. After all climate is a greek word 🙂 .
And about an hour South of Fort Collins, play on the Boulder Creek has been outlawed because the waters are too dangerous!
http://cbs4denver.com/local/boulder.creek.closed.2.1738287.html
Correction: The title of the article is incorrect. After writing the original text, I found out that yesterday’s peak stream flow was exceeded on June 21, 1983 and April 30, 1999. The correction made it into the body of the text before publication but unfortunately did not make it in to the title.
It has been pouring rain all night and it may exceed the June 21, 1983 record, but will probably not beat the April 30, 1999 mark – which was 10.46 ft, and 7,710 cfs
The title of the article is supposed to read “Poudre River Sets A Record“
Thanks for the view of the Cache Le Poudre – I lived in Fort Collins in the 1980’s and loved every minute of it.
North of you, in Alberta, it has been a cold, snowy, and wet ‘Spring’ too, at least since May. Before that the Winter was a mix of a very cold December (mostly still technically Fall) and not so bad El Nino remainder. But then we had one of our coldest May’s on record, even with a a couple of hot days early on. Best thing about this Spring – even when we had a couple of nice weeks in April and a hot day or two in early May, the media didn’t harp about Global Warming, just thanked God for nice weather. Yesterday was the first really warm day and another ‘hot’ (may get to 80 F) day is predicted for today. Perhaps I will finally have something other than spring bulbs blooming in the garden and the peas and beans will get taller than 6 inches. Not much hope for a bumper crop of tomatoes, though.
All the dirty snow is soaking up the rays and melting fast. All the plants are about three weeks late here in western Colorado. Neither lilac blossoms nor apple blossoms this year. 22°F in the third week of May, and with many 20’s up till then, they didn’t even try to blossom, ie. no frost bitten buds, there were no buds at all. About a third of the oaks are still considering putting out leaves, the may end up fire fodder.
The Cashe de la Poudre River is a beautiful area, lived 9 miles past Ted’s place when I first came to Colorado. Fine camping and hiking. I found the only crystalline quartz arrow head I’ve ever seen up on a logging trail about 20 miles up the canyon.
The Colorado River was at flood stage for the past two days. I got over 1″ of rain yesterday, and other drainages received more. More rain on the way today, should help Lake Powell.
It looks like the USGS stream flow links were temporary files and have expired. You can generate your own current graphs from this link.
http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/co/nwis/uv?cb_00065=on&cb_00060=on&format=gif_stats&period=7&site_no=06752260
I hope the
towncity of Gould didn’t wash away. How is everything at North Park?Clearly this is much more than just a fishing expedition.
This Greenie Co-worker I know said last April-“Oh this winter’s just a start of the long dry spell that we are all in for due to Global Warming. -So sayeth the Profit.” Then, after this, cold wet, spring -NE Oregon- think a bit of the Eastern slope of the Rockie dropped into Oregon,”The Profit says, We know not wither or whether the is warm or cold or not.
,-due tot he warm being cold and the cold being warm!” “Cold is part of the Warming even snow!” So now that my Roses are up to three weeks late and it finally dries out for a while- as soon as it hits 90f… “Praise the Profit! it’s Warm!”
Demise of a cult is an unpleasant thing…
Your river looks like the Wallowa, Lostine, and Minam Rivers. All three flooded along with the various creeks that feed into them, tearing out entire sections of roads and bringing boulders onto other parts of the roadways. All three rivers flow into the Grande Ronde which then feeds into the Snake. That’s a lot of water and we still have snow waiting to melt.
However, on the bright side, no one was hurt in Wallowa County and new fishing holes were created. Now that’s my kind of flooding.
Exactly-Pamela, the Grande Ronde, at Troy too. Got a good Steelheading buddy that can’t wait to get down there- as it drops….
Btw- note to my self-Do not rely on the spell checker alone, before
the first cup of coffee….
I went skiing in the back country on Red Lakes Peak near Carson Pass in California on Friday. Lots of snow and lots of ice still on the lake at 8500 feet. This years melt season will drag on for a long time. The snow/ice surface was wonderful. It felt like snow in a ski area. Its better than we thought.
The last time I drove past the Jordan Lake Reservoir in central North Carolina the water was a couple of feet up the trunks of 6″ plus trees and the Cape Fear River was definitely “up” but not flooded.
We FINALLY got the first cutting of fescue hay in last week – about three weeks or more late. The weather has been really weird lately with the winds and storms sometimes coming from the east instead of the west.
Now that’s a flood flow. In general there hasn’t been much change in flood flows in the US, except for certain rivers that have been highly influenced by human development. So my question is: has this river had any kind of development that might make it’s behavior not reflective of local climate conditions?
From a link at Drudge: Late winter snow in Wyoming
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=WY&prodtype=warnings
Heavy snow down to 7000 feet, Wild River, Green, Rattlesnake, and Casper Mountain(s).
In Minnesota, the weather continues its bipolar nature. Each month alternates between being significantly warmer or colder than average. June is cold and rainy after a warm May.
Joe Romm on Climate Progress said the droughts would be permanent. Permanent?
So this rain and snow melt is not what it looks like.
When people say something that is not true, they have to create cover. Now they say unusual weather events also. Nothing unusual here. There have been floods in the mountains before.
timetochooseagain
There is quite a bit of diversion into canals, but no dams upstream. The flow is about 10X normal for the date, and the rain is starting to come down very hard again.
Mid June and we have heavy snow falls in southern Wyoming? I’ve backpacked with my wife over much of it and would never have thought to bring snow shoes this time of the year.
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=WY&prodtype=warnings
000
WWUS45 KRIW 130822
WSWRIW
URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RIVERTON WY
222 AM MDT SUN JUN 13 2010
…MAJOR LATE SPRING SNOWSTORM WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT THE EAST
SLOPES OF THE WIND RIVER MOUNTAINS…THE GREEN AND RATTLESNAKE
MOUNTAINS AND CASPER MOUNTAIN THROUGH NOON TODAY…
.A VERY STRONG LATE SEASON STORM WILL MOVE ACROSS SOUTHERN WYOMING
TODAY. MOISTURE CIRCULATING AROUND LOW PRESSURE TO THE SOUTH WILL
PRODUCE LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW IN THE EAST SLOPES OF THE WIND RIVER
MOUNTAINS…THE GREEN AND RATTLESNAKE MOUNTAINS AND CASPER MOUNTAIN
THROUGH AROUND NOON TODAY. SNOW LEVELS WILL BE AROUND 7000 FEET THIS
MORNING THROUGH NOON TODAY.
WYZ015-131800-
/O.CON.KRIW.WS.W.0011.000000T0000Z-100613T1800Z/
WIND RIVER MOUNTAINS EAST-
222 AM MDT SUN JUN 13 2010
…WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON MDT TODAY…
A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON MDT TODAY.
* SUMMARY AND TIMING…HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATED DOWN TO AROUND 7000
FEET YESTERDAY…AND 10 TO 15 INCHES HAS FALLEN ABOVE 7500 FEET.
LIGHT TO MODERATE SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH AROUND NOON TODAY.
ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 3 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ABOVE
7000 FEET AND AN ADDITIONAL 3 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED
ABOVE 8000 FEET.
* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS…TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATION OF BETWEEN 18 AND
30 INCHES IS EXPECTED ABOVE 8000 FEET WITH 10 TO 15 INCHES ABOVE
7000 FEET.
* WIND AND VISIBILITY…EAST TO NORTHEAST WINDS OF 10 TO 20 MPH
ARE EXPECTED THIS MORNING. VISIBILITIES WILL BE REDUCED TO LESS
THAN ONE MILE IN SNOW THIS MORNING.
* IMPACTS…TRAVEL OVER SOUTH PASS MAY BE HAZARDOUS THIS MORNING
DUE TO REDUCED VISIBILITY AND SLICK ROADS.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER
CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF
SNOW ARE FORECAST THAT WILL MAKE TRAVEL DANGEROUS. ONLY TRAVEL IN
AN EMERGENCY. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL…KEEP AN EXTRA FLASHLIGHT…
FOOD…AND WATER IN YOUR VEHICLE IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.
I’ve been wondering recently; since a warmer atmosphere has a greater water vapor capacity than a cooler atmosphere, wouldn’t a global rise in temperature lead to _more_ snow and rain rather than less? And could this be an additional feedback (negative) due to the possible wider winter snow cover?
Henry chance says:
June 13, 2010 at 9:49 am
If the rains do not stay the same, then we will either have drought or floods in the future according to the warm-earthers.
anna v says:
June 13, 2010 at 5:36 am
Anna, how many years of weather do we need to see to figure that it is climate? 6, 12, 18, 24? It has gotten colder globally from the 1998 maximum till now, that is 12 years.
So 18 years will be the new calculus?
You want to laugh at how inconsistent and shaky climate science is?
A year ago:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8011497.stm
“From the Yellow river in northern China to the Ganges in India to the Colorado river in the United States – the US scientists say that the major sources of fresh water for much of the world’s population are in decline.”
Today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10288943.stm
“In the Yellow River, climate change may even yield a positive benefit as the dependence on meltwater is low and a projected increased upstream precipitation, when retained in reservoirs, would enhance water availability for irrigated agriculture and food security.”
So one year the Yellow River is shrinking and the next year they say upstream precipitation would increase the river.
It’s still completely ridiculous that these modern prophets think they can look into the future. So far all their predictions have failed harder than Nostradamus.