Xasáuan Today

Waterfall in the upper Big Sur drainage: You have to wonder what places like this look like right now…

The Big Sur River has done it again. As of 7:30, it is back over flood stage at 10.31 feet (4,620 cfs). Still a ways to go to match Sunday’s peak of 11.80 feet (6,820 cfs).

7:45 pm Update: Now 10.54 feet (4,950 cfs).

8:15 pm Update: Now 10.82 feet (5,360 cfs).

8:30 pm Update: Now 11.17 feet (5,890 cfs). Flow just increased by 530 cfs in only 15 minutes.

8:45 pm Update: Now 11.30 feet (6,080 cfs).

9:00 pm Update: Now 11.34 feet (6,140 cfs).

9:15 pm Update: Now 11.29 feet (6,070 cfs). Looks like we may have found the peak.

Also at 9:15, the National Weather Service placed a Severe Flash Flood Warning on the Soberanes Fire Burn area, due to heavy rain. They say they expect the Big Sur River to continue to rise.

Radar, in the other hand, indicates that rain over the Big Sur watershed is easing.

9:45 pm Update: Looks like the decline was just a hiccough. The Big Sur River is now at 11.44 feet (6,290 cfs). The NWS was right.

10:15 pm Update: Now 11.73 feet (6,720 cfs) – only 80 cfs below Sunday’s peak.

10:30 pm Update: Now 11.76 (6,760 cfs) – only 40 cfs below Sunday’s peak.

11:00 pm Update: The Big Sur River is now at 12.01 feet (7,150 cfs) – the second highest level ever measured on this stream. The greatest was 14,30 feet (10,700 cfs), in 1978. That record won’t likely be challenged tonight.

11:15 pm Update: Now 12.13 feet (7,330 cfs).

11:30 pm Update: Now 12.34 feet (7,650 cfs) – another quick rise.

11:45 pm Update: Now 12.25 feet (7,510 cfs). Another hiccough, or has the peak finally passed?

Midnight Update: Now 12.20 feet (7,430 cfs). Looks like the peak has really passed this time.

The main concern now is how high the Carmel River will go. It is still rising at the Los Padres Dam and is already higher there than it got on Sunday.

7:00 am Update: It looks like the Carmel River peaked at around 9.1 feet (just over flood stage) at Rosie’s Bridge in the early morning hours. That’s a bit over 7,000 cfs. The peak is now near the river mouth, where it has swollen to over 10,000 cfs – thanks to runoff from Garzas Creek and other lower tributaries.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2017 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Big Sur, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, Santa Lucias. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.