{"id":52506,"date":"2020-07-28T19:13:13","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T19:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monsoonal-rain-provides-float-time-on-dolores-river\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:59:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:59:46","slug":"monsoonal-rain-provides-float-time-on-dolores-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/monsoonal-rain-provides-float-time-on-dolores-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Monsoonal rain provides float time on Dolores River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Linda
Linda Robinson, of Dolores, enjoys a float Sunday down the Dolores River, which rose dramatically from recent rains.<\/span>Courtesy Janneli Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Heavy monsoon rains have temporarily revived the boating season on the Dolores River, and improved conditions on McPhee Reservoir.<\/p>\n

The Dolores River upstream of Dolores surged to 700 cubic feet per second on July 25, up from 125 cfs on July 23.<\/p>\n

The spike in flows attracted kayakers to run the stretch between the West Fork and town over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun. We scraped a bit here and there. The rapids were pretty lively and storm clouds were all around,\u201d said boater Linda Robinson who kayaked with friends Sunday.<\/p>\n

There were no hazards or fences, but the muddy-colored water made it a challenge to see underwater rocks.<\/p>\n

Keep an eye out for cattle fencing, sometimes installed across the river during low water, that may still be in place when flows spike.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the river was flowing at 450 cfs, enough for a kayak or light raft to maneuver, but expect to hit bottom in places.<\/p>\n

Flows at Rico were 400 cfs on July 25, and dropped to 150 cfs on Tuesday. Flows at Gateway below the San Miguel confluence were 300 cfs Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Boaters are urged to be extra cautious, said Sam Carter of the Dolores River Boating Advocates.<\/p>\n

The sudden rise in water approaches flash flood conditions, he said, and can create unexpected hazards such as hidden logjams and debris.<\/p>\n

McPhee benefits<\/div>\n

The extra river flows also helped to temporarily stabilize McPhee Reservoir levels, said Ken Curtis, general manager of the Dolores Water Conservancy District.<\/p>\n

The past few days of rains loaded up the river and dumped about 4,000 acre-feet of water into McPhee, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has helped hold the reservoir level steady, with a little less going out and a little more coming in,\u201d Curtis said.<\/p>\n

A lot of irrigators turned off their water during the heavy rains, he said.<\/p>\n

But the increase in water is not expected to boost supply allocations for individual irrigators, Curtis said. Farmers received 90% of their allocation this season.<\/p>\n

Lack of monsoonal rain last year kept the reservoir from filling as expected after the winter snowmelt. More runoff than predicted sunk into the abnormally dry soil.<\/p>\n

The recent monsoonal rains boosted Cortez to 110% of normal precipitation for July, said Jim Andrus, a weather observer for the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n

The first 18 days of July were dry, and the next eight days brought 1.34 inches of rain.<\/p>\n

But year-to-date precipitation for Cortez is still below normal at 3.85 inches, or 61% of the 6.30-inch average through July.<\/p>\n

The welcomed boost in boating and irrigation water will be short-lived, as the monsoons take a break this week. Sunny days are expected for the next six days, according to the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Increased flows benefit boaters, McPhee Reservoir<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,44,341,13,28,1834,88],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-52506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-dolores","tag-dolores-river","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-kayaking","tag-weather-news"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88096,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52506\/revisions\/88096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52506"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=52506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}