David Weinstein writes again to report the effect of all that snow melting from our hillsides:
After reaching a peak flow of just over 2000 cubic feet per second (cfs) on Friday night (March 5, 2004) and remaining there for most of Saturday, the Fall Creek water level dropped almost in half by mid-day Sunday (to approximately 1200) and today (Monday, March 8, 2004, 7AM) is down to 895.
Examining spring thaws (defined as the peak flow in Feb-April of each year) through history (since 1925), I found that this year's flow was just slightly over average. Over the last 80 years, 47 springs have had flows less than 2000 cfs, with 33 having flows greater or equal to 2000 cfs. Only 11 years have had flows greater than 3000 cfs, and of those only one had a flow exceeding 4000.
Peak Flow (Cubic Feet/Second) Number of Years Cumulative % less than 1500 27 34.18% 1501-2000 20 59.49% 2001-2500 15 78.48% 2501-3000 6 86.08% 3001-3500 5 92.41% 3501-4000 5 98.73% More than 4000 1 100.00%
Personally, I'm happy to have avoided last year's spectacle of my back steps turning into a small waterfall.
Posted by simonstl at March 8, 2004 02:27 PM