Less runoff from latest storm than past two March events
-March 30,2023-
The two huge atmospheric river storms earlier this month sent flood water barreling down the mountain and foothills of Tulare County.
But despite fears of a repeat performance, the latest storm March 29 barely moved the needle on runoff DWR and other flow charts show.
The county’s two reservoirs- Lakes Kaweah and Success – have vacated a combined 80,000 acre feet under the direction of the Corp of Engineers since the March 15 storm, the second one.. The Corps wanted to reduce chances the dams could be overwhelmed by another potent warm storm or sudden hot weather melting what is a record snowpack. They will continue to do that with the hunch that a break in the weather is likely.
But these real time charts posted March 30 clearly show only minor impact on flows from this week’s storm compared to the two earlier events, particularly the first scary event.
Of course saturated soils on the Valley floor continue to impact small communities in the basin as flood water continues to stream down hill to Tulare Lake from channels including the St Johns and Tule Rivers.
While a number of towns like Woodlake and Allensworth continue to struggle with rising water, Visalia has clearly dodged a bullet so far when it comes to impacts.
“Staff at the City of Visalia have been on it” says Mayor Brian Poochigian noting that they have been monitoring embankments and removing debris that could have spread flooding across city streets. “The bottom line is that we were prepared” says Poochigian even though some social media posts erroneously reported problems, he says.
charts pictured: Top: Corps vacates some 40,000af from Lake Success between March 15 and 29
bottom chart: runoff on the Kaweah River is huge on March 11 peaking near 43,000cfs but registers just 5000cfs from the March 29 storm. Tule River records a similar trend