Chama River by Georgia O'Keefe
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the USGS stats and saw that the river cfs was over 6000 cfs this weekend. No one has seen that for 42 years. I once saw it at 3200 cfs. It was fast and had some good waves. I asked the BLM what 6000 cfs was like and they said “very fast”. I would assume that all the rapids that we New Mexicans have grown to love were under lots of water. So what is the reason for this? One of the theories involves dust layers on the snow pack that is causing the snow to melt at a more rapid pace. Due to the decrease in reflectivity, the snow pack is absorbing the sun instead of reflecting and cooling the pack. Who knows the answer?
Meanwhile, the Rio Grande seems to be holding steady at around 3000 cfs which is closer to the mean flow for this time of the year. It will be an interesting year for rivers throughout Colorado and New Mexico. Stay tuned to find out more info!
Filed under: Having Fun Outdoors, Interesting Events | Tagged: Having Fun Outdoors
