In this story from today’s Bee, it appears there will be room for the run-off from the spring snow melt in our rivers, but they will still be running high and fast, and the implications for the continued integrity of the Parkway, with parts of it still flooded, and the erosion and scouring damage caused by having to use the American River as part of a flood conveyance system (which could be remedied by the construction of a major new dam on the American River) still undetermined, it will be a somewhat soggy spring along the Parkway.
But the weather is beautiful, and for those fortunate to be able to use the upper reach of the Parkway, they will enjoy absolutely beautiful conditions.
Here is an excerpt.
Rivers' flow has room for Sierra snow
By Deb Kollars -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 28, 2006
Thursday's deliciously warm temperatures signaled a turning point not just in the Central Valley but up in the Sierra as well.
Arthur Hinojosa, who keeps track of water in all its weather forms across California, predicted winter soon would come to an end in the mountains:
"This warm weather will start the snowmelt in earnest," said Hinojosa, chief of the state Department of Water Resources' hydrology branch.
With highs reaching into the upper 80s in the Valley on Thursday, another time of year also is coming to a close in Sacramento: flood season.
Typically, flood season runs from the first of November through about mid- April, Hinojosa said; this year, heavy storms continued right up to Easter, and the threat along the San Joaquin River has lingered.
Now, however, the Sacramento River system is running well below the "monitor" and "flood" stages, with plenty of room to accommodate water from snow melting in the Sierra.
According to statistics released Thursday, it is quite a snowpack that will melt and flow in our direction. At four locations near Echo Summit, the snow depth measured between 67.4 inches and 102.1 inches, while the snow's water content at those sites measured between 31.8 inches and 47.8 inches - nearly double the average.
Electronic sensor readings throughout the Sierra showed that statewide, the water content of the snowpack measured 180 percent of average for the date. The southern Sierra came in at 175 percent of normal, the central Sierra at 169 percent, and the northern Sierra at 207 percent.
Sacramentans need not fear a flood from all the melting snow, Hinojosa said. Reservoirs and river channels in the Sacramento River system, which includes the American and Feather rivers, have plenty of space for conveying the oncoming water flows.
