Arkansas Flows

DanOrion · 06-13-2006

Can any one explain the Arkansas flows for me? It looks like the river peaked on Saturday or Sunday morning, the precipitiously lost 500+cfs on Sunday afternoon and another 500 cfs lost on Monday. Has the weather changed substanitally? Are there diversions into the Ark or out of the Ark that I am not accounting for? Water from twin lakes?

I mean, come on, how do you loose 500 cfs on two concecutive days like this?

DanOrion · 06-13-2006

OK, here's part of it: More about half of the missing 500 cfs is being stored in twin lakes.

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deepsouthpaddler · 06-13-2006

I think that the rest of it was cooler weather over the weekend. Most of the gauges in the state took a nose dive too. Highs in Leadville were in the upper 70's during the week, and then slid to the mid 60's over the weekend.

I'd guess that that mini-heat wave kicked up the remaining snow into a nice peak this past week, and that the cool down over the weekend chilled things out and slowed the flows. There is still more water as evidenced by the daily gauge peaks coming back up after the cool down. It looks like its getting hot again, so we should still have some good water for the weekend. The peak appears to be past. It was fun while it lasted! Get the tail of it while you can!

bkp · 06-13-2006

Dan,

Here is a link to a story that appeared in last Saturday's Pueblo Chieftain that may shed some light on the Arkansas River flows.

http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1149919200/1

-Bryan