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  Home Page » News » River Flow Down

River flow down

Animas running well below average

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer

Those bare rocks in the Animas River are telling a story.

An early snowmelt and an unimpressive monsoon season left the flow in the Animas last month well below what it was in September 2002 – what is commonly called the year of the drought or remembered for the Missionary Ridge Fire – but not an all-time September low.

Overall, the 2002 flow probably was the historic low in the Animas, said Scott Brinton with the state Division of Water Resources in Durango.

The September Climate Summary released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals that Southwest Colorado is dry by at least a couple of standards.

“September was drier than normal for most of the region (the high plains comprising Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas) as precipitation departures of 1.5 inches below normal were common,” the report said.

The eastern plains of Colorado are one of the pockets in the region that received more than 200 percent of normal precipitation, NOAA said. But in Southwest Colorado, it was a different story.

“The Animas and Los Pinos rivers were flowing below normal, and Lemon Reservoir is 25 percent full,” the report said.

Colorado was cooler in September east of the Continental Divide and warmer on the Western Slope, Deke Arndt of NOAA said. A NOAA map showed the southwest corner of the state as an area of moderate drought.

Curiously, while some Western states – among them California, Nevada and Montana – experienced temperatures near 115-year highs, Colorado registered its 52nd-warmest September.

Statistics from the U.S. Geological Survey show the daily flow in the Animas last month averaged 194 cubic feet per second while the 2002 average flow was 317 cfs.

A USGS graph shows the flow in the Animas last month was well below the 97-year average of 463 cfs for September. The 194 cfs of last month compares to a 97-year average that fluctuated from 400 to slightly more than 300 cfs.

Since 2002, the September flow in the Animas had rebounded. In 2003, the Animas carried a daily average flow of 589 cfs. Then from 2004 through 2008, the average daily flow in September was 600, 344, 489, 656 and 343 cfs.

The all-time low flow in the Animas in September apparently was in 1956, when the river carried a daily average of 161 cfs.

Other years when the September flow averaged less than this year were 1974 (174 cfs), 1978 (201 cfs), 1959 (208 cfs) and 1953 (211 cfs).

daler@durangoherald.com