We noticed water in the river this past weekend. There was some water in the river a couple of times in the last month or two but it wasn’t river flow, per se, but just some local snowmelt. Now the snowmelt and spring runoff has officially begun. We took this opportunity to take students to the river to review the methods of calculating the river flow in Cubic Feet per Second (cfs). We took three classes out to the river and calculated three different numbers. We could consider the numbers as representing a daily trend of decrease in water flow from morning to evening or else take an average of the three calculations for our estimation of cfs.
The measurements were 1.4, 1.16, and 0.86 cfs at 9:45 AM, 10:30 AM, and 12:20 PM, respectively. The average is therefore 1.14 cfs which we will use as a starting point for our understanding of the river flow. We will be taking measurements periodically until the river goes dry. The river at this stretch will likely be dry by March 24 as the acequias will start to flow and will take the water from the river. Nevertheless, these measurements can be correlated to snowfall data in the upper watershed and we can start to make predictions about how much water is available for how long.
Our acequia and river has been going dry in June for several years now and we expect a similar, if not worse, situation this year. Stay posted for future measurements…
Rio Fernando starts flowing | Sol Feliz Farm & AIRE
[…] the snowmelt. You can see a post from 2014 that the river started to flow in March of that year (https://solfelizfarm.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/rio-don-fernando-starts-flowing/). In that year we were able to take measurements which were compared to flows in 2013, you can […]