We have had a crazy change in river levels since yesterday. The river was running high at almost 10,000 CFS and was reduced to 763! I haven’t seen a sudden fluctuation like this in several years. My 2 guesses as to why this happened are: 1) The Corps is very worried about flooding on the lower Allegheny and Ohio rivers (tropical storms pushing North) or 2) there is a gate inspection/repair happening over the next few days.
Regardless of the reason, anything under 1200 CFS or so will make travel very treacherous/almost impossible (if driving an OUTBOARD jet) in the section between the Dam down to Warren. At 763, even the INBOARD jets will will make bottom contact around every island in that same 8.6 mile stretch. Be on the lookout for shore/wade fishermen when river levels are this low. Canoe and Kayakers with heavier loads will be doing lots of portaging over the next few days. The top graph shows the crazy reduction in outflow since yesterday. The bottom graph shows the river temp immediately increasing 4-5 degrees during this reduction of outflow.
The discharge forecast for the upcoming week says the outflow will bump back up to around 10,000 on Monday afternoon (approx). Crazy stuff!
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