Posted on 02/16/2017 5:55:51 AM PST by keat
It rained through most of the night in the Oroville area. A storm passed over and is currently dumping rain in the foothills and mountains to the east of the lake. It's a warm storm and can be expected to trigger some snow melt and runoff.
As of 5 a.m. the reservoir level stood at 870 feet, 30 feet below the lip of the emergency berm.
Inflow from the storm should begin late today and max out over the weekend. It remains to be seen whether this will cause the lake to rise dangerously as releases continue at the maximum.
It looks fairly promising and the Pineapple Express doesn't look to have another storm queued up over the Pacific at least for a week.
Temps have risen to 70 degrees in parts of the Central Valley and almond trees are in bloom. It's Spring, albeit a wet one.
Just curious. Is that lake one of the ones that Mulholland snapped up for LA for like 200 years or whatever the term was?
We’re all praying for you and your neighbours. Take care.
Three storm systems will move into Northern California during the next six days, according to the National Weather Service. The first system will drop about an inch of rain in the Oroville area between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 4 p.m. Thursday. Greater amounts of precipitation will fall in the mountains northeast of the reservoir.SacBeeForecasters are confident that the first two storm systems will not cause huge inflows into Lake Oroville. They are less confident about the third system, which is due sometime Tuesday. That storm could be bigger and warmer, meaning more rain and snowmelt streaming into the swollen reservoir.
Thank you for this update. A whole lot of us in this country are praying for the safety of everyone downstream from this dam. Stay safe.
If that dam was identified a dozen years ago as needing replacement, why has no one demanded that Gov Moonbeam repair it? Was it because he spent all the tax dollars on illegal aliens?
If my tax $ are going to be wasted on the land of fruits and nuts, I hope it’s to rebuild a collapsed dam. Otherwise, Californians can fix their own problems. Anyone who is physically harmed at this point has had ample warning to get out of the way. Let the mayhem begin!
Up through the late 60s or early 70s, occasionally a portion of the aqueduct was dynamited, probably by one of the remaining farmers who were “dried out” of their land. It is presumed he died as there have been none since. I think the movie Chinatown had its basis in the acquisition of water rights.
Has Gov. Moonbeam asked to activate the Guard yet?
I don’t recall anybody arguing for it’s replacement. Environmentalists were expressing fear that the emergency spillway was nothing but a grassy hillside (not even deep-rooted vegetation) and would severely erode if it wears used. Their concern was the huge amount of silt and dirt that would be washed into the river harming fish. I don’t think they were concerned about possible complete failure of the spillway.
The dam experts I’ve read agree about a dirt spillway being a horrible design idea. One construction blogger rightly pointed out the the risk/cost decisions in any dam design. Concrete lining the emergency spillway would have been very expensive.
Given the prolonged drought in California, it is not surprising that things of this nature have been put off. Still, the huge amount of money spent on coddling the illegal invaders could have been put to far better use on infrastructure projects such as this. Now Jerry Clown wants us to bail them out.
It is part of the State Water Project so it will always ship water to SoCal. It was funded and built for that purpose.
Okay, thanks....I was just wondering about the considerations that were put into runoff control after the heavy rains. Was the desire to keep a full-pool condition more for LA water supply more important than the what might happen if the worst happened (for the down damn local residents?)
All those reasons and more. When a reservoir operator choses to release early, farmers add sportsmen freak and accuse them of wasting the water. When they hold back, the enviros accuse them of starving out the salmon. The drought has made it all worse, as has the rain now.
It’s not all up to the state and local operator, the Army Corps is of Engineers is involved as well.
More storage would help everyone but we’ll always have droughts.
Who was in charge of the water level prior to this emergency and why was the dam so full going into the rainy season? Had they been dumping water at full capacity or did someone screw up and not see the spring rains and snow melt coming just like the other obvious missteps with the dam’s maintenance?
I read in the Sac Bee that they aren’t too concerned about the rain during the next couple of days. Temps are cooler and much will fall as snow.
They are concerned about the system coming through next Tuesday as temps will warm up and most will fall as rain.
So not out of the woods yet, but definitely looking better.
“Concrete lining the emergency spillway would have been very expensive.”
I pray that no one is hurt...but otherwise, phuck California for electing Moonbeam and similar jackholes.
They are wrong. This storm is warmer than the last one that started this event. Here in Reno it was 48 degrees overnight. A rare event in February.
With very wet antecedent conditions in lower elevations and
exceptionally deep snowpack at higher elevations, even small
amounts of precipitation could create renewed flooding concerns.
The main flooding concerns will continue to be along smaller
streams, areas of poor drainage, and main stem rivers in northeast
California such as the Pit, Susan and Middle Fork Feather, which
have already seen flooding this past week.
Our recommendation is to utilize the quieter periods to clear
snow, mud and debris from storm drains and poor drainage areas,
and to keep flood mitigation measures in place through next week.
$$
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