Weekly Water & Snow Report

Greetings, River Rats, it's time once again for another thrilling episode of The Weekly Water & Snow Report!

Hey, Rats, it's a FUN report so pull up a chair, pop some corn and chow down on some meaty stuff!

Let's get to the best news first--The US NRCS mid-February report was released this week.  It states in black and white that the Verde River streamflow is progged to 291% of average and the Salt's will be 238% of average!  WHA--WHOOO!

Meanwhile, the Verde snowpack is over 200% of average and the Salt's is 220% of average.  In January, the Salt received OVER 300% of average snowfall!!!!  Get this tidbit--The Little Colorado snowpack right now is 357% of average.  Hey, River Rats, that's ASTRONOMICAL!

OK, now that the euphoria has worn off a little bit, let's take a look at reality--the current conditions.

All of the boatable stretches of the Verde River are in great shape for this time of year.  The Verde above Clarkdale is purring right along at 250 cfs.  Oak Creek is 150.  That great stretch from Montezuma Castle to Camp Verde is 175.  Camp Verde's White Bridge is 950 and there's 1600 going into Horseshoe.  Even the Verde below Bartlettt Dam is runnable @ 550 right now.

As usual, it's too cold for the Salt snowpack to loosen up much so the day stretch is running "only" 625 but there's 965 going into Roosevelt.  The Gila would be the hot spot for adventurous boaters.  There's 850 at Redrock, 500 at Duncan and 704 near Safford.  That's EXCELLENT!

OK, how 'bout current snow conditions.  Since our report last week, there's been basically no change.
Baker Butte snow depth is the same at 63 inches.  The water in the snow rose to 19.5 from 19.2.  Happy Jack's water remained identical at 14.1 even though the snow consolidated from 46 to 43 inches.  Baldy's snowpack shrunk from 54 to 45 inches but the snow water remained precisely the same at 13.5 inches.  White Horse Lake shrunk from 37 to 31 but the water luckily shrunk only two tenths of an inch, dropping from 11.7 to 11.5 inches.

All the low snow in the south deserts is gone--Sabino is back to baseflow at 37 cfs.  Grand Falls remains the same as last week, roughly 250 cfs.  Never fear, Grand Falls is gonna be cookin' this spring.  Better book your view spot now!

Well, that's 'bout it, River Rats.  Now you know why the first box we packed in our Big Truck yesterday was the one filled with our river gear.  LET'S GO BOATING!

PS--I just uploaded the 19-page US NRCS Feb. 15 snow report.  You can use this shortened link to see it:  http://bit.ly/nrcs0215