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.
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.
$$
I have tried to follow this closely but I still haven’t seen a definitive answer on a particular item. The generating plant is flooded and can’t be used to move water through the damn. Volume wise this is not the biggest issue at this point as it only moves about 17% of what the main spillway is discharging even with the main spillway only running at a rate to avoid more catastrophic damage to its out-flow structure.
But here is my question. At what elevation does the main spillway quit being an available drain for the lake? The power generating outlet usually is running so the Lake has protection against repeated Pineapple Express periods as it lowers it when the main spillway can’t. But that is now non-functioning.
It seems to me that the main spillway can only drain the upper XX’ of the lake. Anyone got that number? In that case the lake WILL fill to the emergency spillway again regardless of the first run of storms.