River speak

 

I didn't really know or care what a "cfs" was until we bought a house by a river. It just means "cubic feet per second," a measurement of water flow in real time. Hydrologists have placed gauges at strategic locations on thousands of rivers and streams across the country. 

On the snoflo.org website, you can check the gauge on any river, or look at a map showing all the rivers currently at flood stage across the country. Many, right now.

The gauge of interest to me is the Methow River at Twisp. In the week since I left, it's gone from 350 cfs to 11,000 cfs this morning. That sounds pretty alarming, but isn't unusual. It reached about 13,000 last spring, and in May of 2017, an astonishing 57,000 cfs. 

Another historic Methow Valley flood is inevitable someday, but the river typically handles a huge volume of water during spring run-off. An exciting time to be there.

The heat wave across the state is melting the mountain snow pack fast, leading to this rapid rise. We return to a colder weather pattern tomorrow, so things will probably settle down. 

Anyway, I'll take some pictures this weekend. We're going over to see the community theater production of "Wizard of Oz."

That's Tom, front row on the left. Maya and Nova also have parts in the play, so a real family event.