Big storm in Nor Cal this weekend

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Raining pretty good in Davis, CA. right now.

Looks like Sunday will be really dumping.

Hope we get lots of snow in the mountains from this one.

Watch the Tiny House building TV show.

[johnsquires]

Good weekend for tying flies.

My wife wants a tiny house. A tad on the small side for me.

[bigfly]

Bill, you would think at dawn it would be cold....
This morning the cats are upset because the trees started shedding...bombing would be a better term.
40 deg and warming fast.....

And now.....the "Spring like" sound of water running off the roof.....

Jim

[JasonB]

With the forecast temperatures, and the amount of rain predicted the entire Coloma/Lotus valley and much of the divide is currently in preparation for substantial flooding. Wish I were out fishing, but instead I'm taking a break from all the sandbagging. It will be very interesting to see what happens, but if flows go anywhere near the projected levels (79,324cfs below Chili Bar dam was this mornings projection) it will likely be a scary event to say the least. We'll be sleeping on the second floor the next couple nights I think, and the cars are going to be parked at the neighbors house up the hill. Fingers crossed, but I think we're going to lay down another layer of sandbags just in case.
JB

[Sheepdog8404]

Wow Jason! 79K cubes?!?! That might be worth a drive to check that out. You best tie up that raft to your roof so you guys can egress if the 2nd story proves futile.:cool:

[Larry S]

Jason and others, Stay safe out there! Lives aren't replaceable. Mark K posted a video of the '97 Feather flood.
Most of us have seen the 1964 high water signs along the Eel. We need that polar vortex to send a cold blast
this way.
Best to all,
Larry S

[OceanSunfish]

With the forecast temperatures, and the amount of rain predicted the entire Coloma/Lotus valley and much of the divide is currently in preparation for substantial flooding. Wish I were out fishing, but instead I'm taking a break from all the sandbagging. It will be very interesting to see what happens, but if flows go anywhere near the projected levels (79,324cfs below Chili Bar dam was this mornings projection) it will likely be a scary event to say the least. We'll be sleeping on the second floor the next couple nights I think, and the cars are going to be parked at the neighbors house up the hill. Fingers crossed, but I think we're going to lay down another layer of sandbags just in case.
JB

Well above "100 year flood" level right?

[TyV]

Early look seeing Chili Bar at only 6,000 or so is encouraging for the SF Jason. It's warm and very wet though. Yuba already at 40k, hoping everyone is safe, dry and warm!

[roywest]

Some pretty amazing flow numbers tonight across CA...

[cdevine]

Your not kidding. These are some of the rivers I was watching as they hit crest last night. Looks like most are on the down now as that rain is starting to turn to snow. Donner, Kirkwood, Sugarbowl, Mammoth, Truckee all snow.... Thank god. Looks like another 3-5 feet of snow this week. What a storm. Hope all are well.

12k+ at Truckee in Reno. Lots of localized flooding and business closures.
7k+ at Truckee Boca.
9k East Carson.

[JasonB]

Well above "100 year flood" level right?

Not as high above the theoretic "100 year flood" as I would like for sure!!! It was with great relief that we saw the river rise to "only" 32,000cfs. We're in a caretaker position for the winter, and as nice as the house and location are it's much closer to the river than I would ever want to build/buy. It was very impressive to watch, the river didn't start to rise above 5,000cfs for the longest time due to Slab creek reservoir having some headroom. Once it started to spill over the top of that (about 1PM it was spilling ~1,000cfs) things began to change very very fast. The big jump up in flows started about 3:30-4:00 at our location, and by the time it was dark the volume had basically quadrupled.

Here's the river at somewhere close to 5,000cfs
12591

And here are a few shots from this morning. The flow was just barely beginning to recede from the 32,000cfs peak (I'm guestimating about 30,500+/-)
12592

12593

The only reason that we even entertained the ideal of staying put with the projections that were given is due to the almost immediate egress we have (road climbs uphill), coupled with the fact that we are in what would amount to a very mild/protected side of the river (which buys a little more time). Our nearest neighbor downstream is in a much more direct path for current, and is substantially lower. I can't imagine they slept much at all last night, but they did stay... I wouldn't have!

12594

Most interesting, is that we are not out of the woods yet; big storm projections continue, though it is supposed to be colder/snowing. Let's hope that is the case!
JB

[Mark Kranhold]

Scary stuff Jason! Wish you well through the next wave. Thanks for the pics, good stuff!

[JasonB]

Forgot to mention one tidbit. In that last picture, if you look very closely at the shed in the foreground you can make out (barely) a wooden paddle mounted horizontally about 2-3' below the eve of the roofline. That paddle was installed near the peak of the 1997 high-water line. Just for some perspective, bear in mind that this is in a fairly wide section of the river with a very low flat area on the far side which does absorb quite a bit of excess flow.
JB

[bigfly]

JB, I think you are lucky it froze up here......
Locked up quite a bit of water, that was headed your way...
Hope you're well....

Jim.