Snowpack report for whitewater rafting in Washington during 2016 season
We have seen some changes to the river flows, and the general consensus is that we're in for a short whitewater season (so book your trips early). The Sauk has went from around 4,500 cubic feet of water per second, to about 2,200 in a matter of 2 days. What it seems is that the snow is at higher elevations and thus requires extremely high temperatures in order to have a melt which has an effect on the river flows. This is a good and bad thing for us because on the positive side it's going to extend our season; on the negative side it makes things a little more unpredictable and potentially we will have a long season of water that is slightly too low to run (god forbid!).
The diagrams to the left are snapshots of the hydrographs at the time of this writing (Thursday May 12), they show the Sauk and Skykomish river systems, both of which are mostly related to the snowpack report of the "Puget Sound" region. The Sauk has a little bit of influence from the Northern region, which has more snow. The river level hydrographs from this week clearly show a definite relationship, nearly 1 to 1, regarding air temperature and water flow; although neither river really got as high was we would expect with temperatures that hot.
You can see the average river levels by the small yellow triangles. You would think with the hot temperatures that we'd be seeing very high levels, but with less snowpack, and (theoretically) that snowpack being concentrated at higher elevations, it's common for that hot weather to just bump us a little. Either way the rivers are all clear and running; no trees, and we are good to go. Got new brakes on one of our buses, and two new rafts, so we're all stoked. We look forward to hosting you great folks on the river. The Sauk and Skykomish look to be good bets for the next couple months; SO HIT THEM UP!
