2011 Spring run-off - Kettle River Rising...

On May 17th the Kettle River achieved a flow rate of 18.32 vertical feet according to the National Weather Service NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Predictive Services. The highest flow of water for this river since 05.21.08. Army Corp of engineers rates Flood Stage for this area at 18.5 feet. On 05.22.06 we hit 20.18, nearly two feet higher than these images taken today. But there’s a lot of snow in the Monashee Range of central British Columbia, the head waters for the Kettle River. Anticipate another substantial rise in the river within the next two weeks with continuing episodes until mid June.

Below is what the NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Predictive Services graph looked like for that day. A point to note low water is roughly 9 feet on this graph.

It takes a bit more water under the bridges to dampen the town of Curlew on the banks of the Kettle River seen in this image from that same date.

Here are some historic high water marks of the Kettle River near Curlew WA.

Historical Crests
(1) 21.15 ft on 05/29/1948
(2) 20.54 ft on 05/27/1942
(3) 20.18 ft on 05/22/2000
(4) 19.69 ft on 06/01/1972
(5) 19.60 ft on 05/21/1956
(6) 19.52 ft on 05/14/1971
(7) 19.37 ft on 05/30/1983
(8) 19.30 ft on 05/20/1957
(9) 19.17 ft on 05/29/1986
(10) 19.12 ft on 05/20/1954

Will close this session with this final image from May 17th 2011 with the forecast for higher water to come this year at the Canadian Monashee's release an unseasonable deep snowpack into the vallys below.