Yuba River Flows

I'm sure everyone is wondering what's happening on the Lower Yuba River with the higher flows. At 4:30 today the Smartsville monitoring station (YRS) shows 13,900 +/-.

A run down on how the flows have escalated and then currently receding is as follows.

12/20/10 12:00 noon at YRS 14,500 cfs +/-
12/19/10 12:00 noon at YRS 18,000 cfs +/-
12/18/10 12:00 noon at YRS 5,503 cfs +/-
12/17/10 12:00 noon at YRS 3,992 cfs +/-
12/16/10 12:00 noon at YRS 3,980 cfs +/-
12/15/10 12:00 noon at YRS 3,823 cfs +/-
12/14/10 12:00 noon at YRS 1,456 cfs +/-

This doesn't take into account Deer Creek (DCS)

12/20/10 12:00 noon at YRS 655 cfs +/-
12/19/10 12:00 noon at YRS 2,440cfs +/-
12/18/10 12:00 noon at YRS 3,720cfs +/-
12/17/10 12:00 noon at YRS 129 cfs +/-
12/16/10 12:00 noon at YRS 108cfs +/-
12/15/10 12:00 noon at YRS 258 cfs +/-
12/14/10 12:00 noon at YRS 106cfs +/-


I'm not sure exactly how this works, but I believe that this means that on 12/19/10 the Yuba was probably flowing at over 20,000 cfs. That's a bunch.




I ran down at about 4:30 this evening to snap some photos of the Lower Yuba River at the Parks Bar Bridge. My son Zack had his wisdom teeth removed today and I couldn't get down to the river until late.

This photo was taken above the Parks Bar Bridge looking upstream around the 1st bend. The river is flowing at about 14,800 cfs. It's into the bushes quite a bit and the side channel at the top is flowing pretty good.

Here are the old bridge abutments and the water just about flowing over the top, The water is on the back side of the willows on the far side.

This photo is looking down stream from the Parks Bar Bridge. The water on the left of the willows is normally high and dry, at 5,000 cfs or less the river stays in the channel to the right of the willows.

This is the tailout of what we refer to as "The Aquarium". At this tailout, years ago, there used to be islands and the river is now channelized and flows river left. Right now there are many braided channels where the water is flowing through the willows and cutting the corner., river right. This is an example of where the high flows could be beneficial. That is if the main channel doesn't get cut deeper. It would be good to open up these side, braided channels.

This is the main channel which is river left of where the river is cutting the corner. This is an example of where we hope the river won't channelize deeper.




Here's the view looking upstream where the river is cutting the corner. We are hoping that a new channel would be carved through this area. I think this would be a good thing. With a week more of high flows predicted, time will tell.




This the "Long Island" which is about 3 1/2 miles below Parks Bar Bridge. Usually about 80% of the river flows river right. You can see here that a good portion of the river is flowing river left. The main flow is still river right.

The big question is. Where do the fish go when the flows get this high?

I'll try to get out and take additional photos as the week progresses. I'll keep everyone posted.

Clay