15" New snow this morn....

[Nemont]

http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/reports/showrep.cgi?3MRDTAP7

Fort Peck rose 7 inches in a 24 hour period. Inflows jumped from 35,000 cfs to 90,000 cfs. They are filling the flood pool rapidly even while trying to safely evacuate water from the system. It will be interesting to see how they handle this. Downstream they are releasing even more water and the lakes are still rising.

Nemont

 

[Horn Seeker]

NEMT... yeah, just the Missouri jumped to 90k... but then you've got who knows how much other water coming in all the side drainages of the lake...and they are only letting 26K or so out?? I think the lake will be fuller than its been in a LOOOOONG time this year, specially since the Madison, Jefferson, Gallatin, Sun, Marias, etc.. haven't even started pumping water in yet!!!

WOW.

 

[Nemont]

Horn,
They are only letting 19,000 cfs out right now due to a couple of things. First the downstream reservoirs are full and also dealing with record run off. Look at Garrison: inflows are at 103,000 cfs and outflows are 54,000 yet more water from both the Milk and Yellowstone will be added to the flow of the Missouri before Garrison. Those inflows could increase to 250,000 cfs in the next couple of days.

The flood control pools in Garrison and Oahe are over 75% filled and most likely will reach capacity when snowmelt starts soon. Fort Peck will likely continue to rise rapidly just to try and retain as much water as possible. The whole system is nearing capacity and runoff from the record mountain snow pack is still waiting to start. Will be an interesting year.

Regardless I wonder how many acre feet of water it takes to make Fort Peck rise 7 inches?

Nemont

 

[Horn Seeker]

Well, supposedely it has a 245,000 acre surface area, so if we multiply that by .58 (7 inches is .58 of a foot)... and you get 142,917 acre feet. Is that the correct way to calculate that? I guess an acre foot is a foot deep of water over an acre. So one foot increase would be "about" 245,000 acre feet right...? Evidently she holds about 19,000,000 acre feet of water total!

 

[onpoint]

Just got back to Bozn from West Yellowstone. Hwy 191 crosses the Gallatin Madison divide at about 7200 ft. On that divide is about two feet+ snow on the level, imagine at 8500-10000'. The Gallatin is just beginning it's runoff. The power company is letting all of the Madison that's coming into Hebgen Reservoir (which is about 8' below full pool) out of the dam in preparation for the deluge to come.....and everything that the Missouri is putting into Canyon Ferry is being released out the dam as well. Missouri Headwaters snowpack is still very large sitting poised to come out and it's almost June. The Yellowstone Headwaters is just beginning it's big snowpack melt...... It might get quite interesting.

Mountain lake adventures and river fishing in this part of the country might come quite late compared to some years........

And all that water has to eventually make it to the Lower Mississippi, which already has it's problems.......

 

[mtmiller]

Well, supposedely it has a 245,000 acre surface area, so if we multiply that by .58 (7 inches is .58 of a foot)... and you get 142,917 acre feet. Is that the correct way to calculate that? I guess an acre foot is a foot deep of water over an acre. So one foot increase would be "about" 245,000 acre feet right...? Evidently she holds about 19,000,000 acre feet of water total!

I was going to throw out that number earlier, but I figured NeMont already knew that answer. The question is, how much does the surface area increase by adding 7"?

 

[Horn Seeker]

Well, if the average slope of the shoreline is 18%, 7" would be about 6 inches more water... there are 1520 miles of shoreline... or about 96 million inches of shoreline... 575 million square inches...or about 91 acres of extra space! (hahaha, I made up the 18%) so maybe another 40-50 acre feet...:hump:

:W:

 

[Nemont]

I was going to throw out that number earlier, but I figured NeMont already knew that answer. The question is, how much does the surface area increase by adding 7"?

yeah that's what she said.

According to the link: I posted it looks like main pool storage capacity is 17,042,000 ac/ft of water, at an elevation of 2234 and is 100% filled, the flood control pool currently holds 2,253,660 ac/ft of addition water and is 61.3% filled. So the total storage capacity exceeds 19,000,000 ac/ft slightly. Anyway you cut it that is alot of water.

Where I camped on memorial day weekend in 2008 is under 35 feet of water today. Fishing is next to impossible due to all the flooded weeds beds, unless you want to spend $150 a day in lost tackle.

Nemont

 

[Horn Seeker]

35 Feet!!! WOW!

 

[Horn Seeker]

And....another 17 inches new this morn up on the ski hill... .WOW!

 

[JCS]

At my house this month I have received 8.2" of rain. Eastern Montana doesn't have to worry about water for a while.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Where ya at JCS?

You are right, guys wont have to irrigate for a WHILE!

 

[JCS]

A few miles north of Glendive. I'm at 11.33" for April and May. That is just rain. We had some snow in April that I didn't get the moisture for.

 

[DavidKeenan]

Nasty out that way. Not to pizz anyone off but it was 94 earlier. East coast heat wave. Gimme snow whew.

 

[Sixpointbull]

I was up in the mtns Sunday and up high the stream level was normal and not discolored at all. It seemed strange, but the snow levels were so low that the stream that high was not affected by the rain very much yet. Hard to imagine no run-off yet, but I guess when we are still adding to the snowpack there isn't going to be much. 75 this weekend could change that in a hurry.

 

[----]

The wife and I were the park all weekend. The snowmelt looks like it hasn't even started yet. If put down 3-6 inches of fresh while we were there, and tons of rain in Gardiner and West.

I really don't know where it's all going to go.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Its going to go downhill.... ;0) Until it reaches the gulf.... then it levels out!