Wisconsin River Report - October 9, 2003

Wisconsin River Report

October 9, 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

2003 Drought Conditions Are Stark Contrast to Last Year

While the fall of 2003 is turning out to be just an extension of the extremely dry summer, this time last year heavy rains were pounding the Wisconsin River basin according to Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company (WVIC) of Wausau. During the first week of October last year rainfall totaled almost four inches over the northern Wisconsin River basin and three inches over the central basin. In stark contrast to last year, rainfall averaged a meager 0.2 inch during the first week of October this year. Last year at this time total rainfall for the year was running over nine inches above normal, this year it is running over seven inches below normal, a difference of a full 16 inches from one year to the next.

Both river flow and reservoir storage continue to drop. The average flow of the Wisconsin River at Rothschild this week of 1,486 cubic feet per second (cfs) was 54% below normal. At Wisconsin Rapids the river flow was 56% below normal, and near the mouth of the river at Muscoda, the flow was 57% below normal. Overall reservoir storage dropped another 2% over the past week and now stands at 45% of capacity. In contrast, last year at this time reservoir storage was 93% of capacity and rising.

Temperatures were highly variable over the past week. Daytime highs in the 40’s and nighttime lows in the low 30’s dominated the first half of the week. In the far north overnight lows even dropped to the low 20’s. By the end of the week the weather pattern changed drastically and daytime highs rose into the upper 70’s in most locations. In the far southern portion of the basin many readings in the low 80’s were reported.

The water temperature of the Wisconsin River dropped to 50 degrees following the early week cold snap, and then rebounded to 54 degrees after the warm spell. The normal river temperature for the first week in October is 57 degrees.

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	9.5	-0.2	Eagle River	N/A	575	Upper Basin	0.19	22.16	-3.46
Willow	9.2	-0.3	Tomahawk	1,290		Central Basin	0.18	19.16	-7.18
Rice	6.3	-0.4	Merrill	1,181	1,774	Temperature
Spirit	7.1	-0.3	Rothschild	1,486	3,200	Location	Ave.	Normal	+/-
Eau Pleine	11.4	-0.4	St. Point	1,487		Willow Reservoir	45	49	-4
Reservoir Storage			Wis. Rapids	1,441	3,210	Wausau	51	53	-2
Northern	47%	-2%	Petenwell	1,612	4,300	Prairie du Chien	57	57	0
Overall	45%	-2%	Muscoda	3,142	7,272

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