-Aprl 28,2023-
Forecasts call for snowmelt runoff of 3.2 million acre-feet down the Kings River this season.Here are some bullet points: courtesy Kings River Water Assn (KRWA).
— Pine Flat storage is just over 437,000 a.f. With higher inflow, the rate of the reservoir’s storage decrease has been reduced to 5,000 a.f. over the past 24 hours. (For the past few weeks storage has been declining about 10,000 a.f. a day because of the Corps of Engineers’ flood release and much lower inflow.) Present storage is less than 44% of capacity.
KRWA expects inflow during this first brief hot weather surge to increase to between 15,000-18,000 c.f.s. by Sunday and/or Monday.
— Inflow to Pine Flat is expected to drop next week with a return of colder weather in the mountains and even some snowfall.
— In the longer term, inflows to Pine Flat are expected to be in excess of releases for about 60 days, meaning the reservoir’s storage will be increasing during that period.
— Releases from Pine Flat for the past 24 hours have been just over 13,000 c.f.s. More than 7,000 c.f.s. of that is flood release water with targets of 4,750 c.f.s.to the North Fork-James Bypass and 2,500 c.f.s. to the South Fork system and Tulare Lake. Total flood release is 7,250 c.f.s.
— The flow in the Kingsburg area at Highway 99 was increased a few days ago (with greater downstream irrigation demand) to about 10,200 c.f.s.
— Increased releases are expected over the next few days, with 800-900 c.f.s. expected to be ordered and diverted (above present irrigation demands) by the upper river units above Centerville, Fresno County; and about 400 c.f.s. as far west as Army and Island weirs, north of Lemoore. These increased water demands from the 28 member water agencies along the river may increase Pine Flat releases up to about 14,500 c.f.s.
–KRWA and PG&E are taking May 1 snow surveys Friday.
Watermaster Steve Haugen says the KRWA is “encouraged by where we’re at.”