Wisconsin River Report - May 23, 2003

Wisconsin River Report

May 23, 2003

Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company

2301 North Third Street

Wausau, WI 54403

For more information contact Sam Morgan

Phone: 715.848.2976, ex 301

Email: morgan@wvic.com

Reservoirs Hit the Full Mark

Continued runoff from heavy rains over the Mother’s Day weekend completed the spring refill of the Wisconsin River Reservoir System this week according to Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company of Wausau. The final reservoir to fill was the Willow Flowage south of Hazelhurst. The Willow hit the full mark on Tuesday, May 20. This marks the third consecutive spring that WVIC’s system of 21 reservoirs has completely filled; following several dry springs in the late 90’s when the reservoirs never reached the full mark. With river flows still elevated, the reservoirs are forecasted to remain full for the next week.

Rainfall for the past week averaged 0.44 inch in the northern Wisconsin River Basin and 0.27 inch in the central basin. The rainfall was confined to one small storm that passed through the area on Monday. Normal rainfall for a week in May is about 0.8 inch. Total precipitation for the year is averaging about two inches above normal in the northern basin and one inch above normal in the central basin.

River flows rose dropped steadily throughout the week, but were still well above normal at weeks’ end. At Merrill, the flow of the Wisconsin River averaged 5,807 cubic feet per second (cfs) for the week, and had only dropped to 4,000 cfs by Friday. This flow is about double the summer normal flow. The situation was similar farther downstream where the flow of the Wisconsin River at Rothschild was still over 5,000 cfs on Friday compared to a summer normal of about 2,500 cfs, and the flow at Wisconsin Rapids was over 8,000 cfs compared to the summer normal of about 3,000 cfs. With flows still at these elevated levels, flood gates may be open at many hydroelectric dams over the upcoming holiday weekend. Boaters and fisherman are reminded that open flood gates can cause dangerous currents both above and below the dams and extra caution should be used when out on the area rivers this weekend.

Reservoir Water Levels			River Flow			Precipitation
Location	Feet Below Max	Weekly Change (Ft.)	Location	Weekly Average (cfs)	Monthly Normal (cfs)	Location	This Week (In.)	Annual Total (In.)	+/- Annual Normal
Rainbow	0.4	-0.1	Eagle River	N/A	618	Upper Basin	0.44	10.67	+1.87
Willow	0.4	+0.8	Tomahawk	4,204		Central Basin	0.27	9.94	+1.14
Rice	0.6	-0.3	Merrill	5,807	3,100	Temperature
Spirit	0.3	N/C	Rothschild	7,969		Location	Ave.	Normal	+/-
Eau Pleine	0.1	N/C	St. Point	10,863		Willow Reservoir	53	52	+1
Reservoir Storage			Wis. Rapids	10,378	6,492	Wausau	55	57	-2
Northern	92%	+6%	Petenwell	10,926		Prairie du Chien	54	61	-7
Overall	94%	+5%	Muscoda	26,536	12,353

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