Wednesday, March 28, 2007

River still rising...


I captured this sunset at Assateague National Seashore a few years back. Heading down to the ocean and Delaware Bay this weekend, to Cape May and/or Cape Henloppen. Then back home for canoe trips on the Musconetcong River and Flatbrook if the water levels hold.

What gives? The Delaware River at Rieglesville is still rising, now near 13 feet. The river at Belvidere is beginning to flatline, so that is encouraging. With no serious rain in the forecast there isn't much to worry about for now. Flood stage for the Riegelsville gage is 22' and that we will not see, hopefully for many many moons.

The Lackawaxen River and many other streams rose rapidly yesterday in response to the 70 deg. day, and the snow pack is fast disapearing.

The Musconetcong River has crashed dramatically from 2.80' to 2.35' and that was just today. The lower level reflects the end of the last big dump of water from New Jersey's largest lake (Hopatcong).

NYC reservoirs have shot back up to 95% capacity, 10% higher that before the last winter-like spring storm.

The good news is the forecast of mostly sunny skies, breezes and low humidity, conditions needed to melt remaining snow, lower soil moisture, and bring streams and rivers back down to seasonal levels.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check the Lehigh Glendon Gage... Looks like a fairly steady release coming down that river.
Joe P.

riverhealer said...

Looks like FE Walter release was reduced several hundred cfs early yesterday, so the Lehigh is now near average flow.

I usually use the Bethlehem gage to get a sense of what is going on in the Lehigh. Glendon readings reflect the dam pool which is why that gage always reads several feet higher that the others.

It's amazing that we suddenly are going into a dry spell with brush fire alerts etc.