River forecast site

[Rick J]

Here is a good site to show current and forecast river stages in NW California

http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/rfc_guidance.php

[Tim P]

Here is a good site to show current and forecast river stages in NW California

http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/rfc_guidance.php

It's better than nothing - but the few times that I have watched it over the course of a couple of days when I was on-river it tended to wildly over-predict the flows that actually occurred.

That might just reflect the conservative nature of river flow forecasts - for safety reasons, they tend toward the worst-case outcome (sort of like weather forecasts).

tim

[nor cal steelie]

Rick is this a new site , they discontinued the one I had for the Russian (NOAA site), I gotta say It was a pretty good , , they were allways pretty close , at least on this river

[Bob Laskodi]

The results presented are the results of hydrological models that are well respected in the industry. They are only as good as the data inputs that are required to make them operate. The USNWS issues models of precipitation that are used in the generation of the hydrological models and if the precipitation amounts are incorrect, then the run off and stream flow models are incorrect. They do not tend to the "worst case" scenario, or the "best case" scenario, they reflect the data that is inputted. As in all things, it's very difficult to predict future events (such as rainfall amounts) and the subsequent hydrological events that can happen.

[Rick J]

the site seems to not predict the South Fork Eel very well - they show it responding (dropping) much more quickly than it really seems to once the rains stop

[Dustin Revel]

as Bob said these models are dependent on the accuracy of the inputs. some of these inputs such as the snow melt forecasts and rain forecasts are as we all know not very accurate especially on the coast.
If you let these forecasts dictate where you fish you'll end up wasting a lot of gas, and also miss out on good fishing elsewhere.

[Rick J]

no question you should not just relay on these sites but they are another tool to help in deciding where you might find fishable water - here are a few more sites for Oregon and Washington that might be helpful

http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=mfr

http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=pqr&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1&toggles=10,7,8,2,9,15,6

http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=sew