Hi I just spent a week at 30 Mile campground at Rio Grande reservoir. It did rain several of the days so maybe a late monsoon? Driving up to Lake City was somewhat depressing because it looks like even the aspen are dying in places. My question is- how does this reservoir control the water downstream? Also saw some guys working on the "Snotel" and they talked about studying why, as they said, snow is disappearing. Thanks!
Claudia, I'm happy to hear it rained somewhere! I'm not exactly sure what you're asking about the reservoir, but I'll tell you what little I know. Rio Grande Reservoir was built by the San Luis Valley Irrigation District and they use it to store water in the spring and release it later in the summer. This causes downstream flows to be a little lower than they otherwise would be in the spring, and allows for a steadier downstream flow as the summer progresses (when it would otherwise dip down to a trickle during a year like this). Interestingly, it looks like this year the reservoir has stayed at a pretty steady water level since mid-June, which indicates that the inflows are equal to or greater than the releases, which seems unusual to me. Here's more information on that reservoir: https://www.slvid.org/rio-grande-reservoir-operations
Oddly we had the coolest summer in eight years up here at the lookout. We never got above 78*.F The ambient smoke haze has been the worst with poor views of Shiprock, Comb Ridge, and Monument Valley. I only have my 2024 and current journal up here to compare. Last year's precip to date was a whopping 5.5 inches and this year is 2.8 inches. A fair gap in moisture. We lost our wildflowers in late June when typically they would hold up until now.
Hi I just spent a week at 30 Mile campground at Rio Grande reservoir. It did rain several of the days so maybe a late monsoon? Driving up to Lake City was somewhat depressing because it looks like even the aspen are dying in places. My question is- how does this reservoir control the water downstream? Also saw some guys working on the "Snotel" and they talked about studying why, as they said, snow is disappearing. Thanks!
Claudia, I'm happy to hear it rained somewhere! I'm not exactly sure what you're asking about the reservoir, but I'll tell you what little I know. Rio Grande Reservoir was built by the San Luis Valley Irrigation District and they use it to store water in the spring and release it later in the summer. This causes downstream flows to be a little lower than they otherwise would be in the spring, and allows for a steadier downstream flow as the summer progresses (when it would otherwise dip down to a trickle during a year like this). Interestingly, it looks like this year the reservoir has stayed at a pretty steady water level since mid-June, which indicates that the inflows are equal to or greater than the releases, which seems unusual to me. Here's more information on that reservoir: https://www.slvid.org/rio-grande-reservoir-operations
Oddly we had the coolest summer in eight years up here at the lookout. We never got above 78*.F The ambient smoke haze has been the worst with poor views of Shiprock, Comb Ridge, and Monument Valley. I only have my 2024 and current journal up here to compare. Last year's precip to date was a whopping 5.5 inches and this year is 2.8 inches. A fair gap in moisture. We lost our wildflowers in late June when typically they would hold up until now.