All Hail The Jökulhlaup!

Suicide Basin is at it again…

Pretty sure a 63 foot water level drop in 48 hours is gonna wreak a little havoc.

From the NWS –

AT 522 AM AKDT...BASED ON REPORTING GAUGES 
A GLACIER-DAMMED LAKE OUTBURST ALONG THE 
MENDENHALL LAKE AND RIVER IS CONTINUING. 
THE ADDED WATER FROM THE GLACIER-DAMMED 
LAKE INTO THE RIVER SYSTEM WILL RESULT IN 
CONTINUED RIVER RISES THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING. 
THE RIVER IS CURRENTLY RISING AT AROUND 
2 INCHES PER HOUR. ESTIMATED SUICIDE BASIN 
LAKE LEVEL PRIOR TO RELEASE INDICATES THAT 
MENDENHALL LAKE AND RIVER COULD SEE SIMILAR 
LEVELS TO THE 2014 RECORD EVENT OF 11.85 FEET.

Better go put away the lawn furniture and get the livestock to higher ground, Larry.

 

 

You Fishin’ Today?

Um, no.

I don’t think the heavy stuff’s gonna come down for quite a while.

What you’re not seeing on the teevee machine: much of New York’s Schoharie Valley and the headwaters of the East Branch, smashed into a muddy paste.

Wrung Out and Hung Up

Since ice-out the whole world’s brimful of water and overflows with each passing blow, it seems. Down low the trillium are blooming with wet feet, but nobody can tell whether the Hendricksons have read the memo, and we’re all standing around at the pull-offs looking sideways at each other and not daring to complain about too much water. When the sun finally emerges it’s instantly warm, and we groan and stretch and make note of the fattening buds on the branches, and oh did you see the stickjam blew out up there by the Wall Pool. Yeah, the pool that’s had a standing wave in it for weeks, right, and we’re off to have a look at this meadow or that little feeder, splash-crashing through widening potholes full of the same caramel-colored water that’s now carving off the oxbow up by Bill’s place. It’s enough to make a guy quit drinking just so he can start again.

Still no biscuit?

On the way home there’s a guy in red-checkered flannel way out in his yard, reclining in a lawn chair next to his burn pile and smoking a cigar. Damned if he isn’t going to burn something. Viking points for hanging tough, flannel man, might not rain tonight.