How to read the water levels in UNITS?????

[DCBEXTREME24HP]

I went on google and typed in Colorado River Water Levels

Took me to the USBR website where they update the Davis Dam, Parker Dam schedule for releasing water.

How do you guys determine if they're releasing this many units, the water levels at lets say Needles bridge will be ok to go through, or levels at Topok are going to be high enough, etc?

Seeing pictures of the docks at Topock sitting on the dirt make me wonder what the river right there looks like and how deep it will be.

Id like to take my boat out sometime but want to make sure if i take it out this winter ill be able to run up river to Topock and be ok.

I've only had my boat 1 season and haven't been on the water in the winter time, so i'm curious.

 

[RiverDave]

Thats a great question. I have always seen people talking about "units" but honestly have no idea what it means as far as water level either. In Parker it never really mattered because it is pretty controlled.

In Havasu I just stay out of the river if the water looks that low and head south.

 

[Flyinbowtie]

I just did a search and it took me here.
Back up one step from this link and it will give you a new update every 24 hrs., I think



https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/hourly/hourly.html

"units" of release on sites like these are almost always cubic feet per second. You can google and find the conversion tables to get that number up to acre ft, which is how they document the capacity of the lakes, ie one acre ft. is enough water to cover one acre in a foot of water...

 

[RiverDave]

but how does that translate into feet up and down in havasu etc?

 

[Ziggy]

The same amount from each dam will have a different affect on the level so translating units into river level would be next to impossible in general terms. It'd have to be determined individually after each dam.

 

[Flyinbowtie]

but how does that translate into feet up and down in havasu etc?

Look at the given Elevation number for each lake where it is shown in he columns. The elevation is the water level in the lake in relation to mean sea level, I believe..so, that elevation level will tell you when the lake in question has risen or dropped, in inches or ft....one of those lakes said 445 ft...that is in relation to MSL. Find the elevation at max capacity, subtract, and you have the number of ft. from full...

 

[Justfishing]

There is flow from a dams release and from rain or snow melt feeding the river. This will give you an idea of how fast the current is flowing in the river portion below the dam and to some extent the water level. It is the releases from Lake Mead that will affect the inflow in to Lake Havasu.

To know the lake level of Lake Havasu you will have to look up Parker Dam. There will be several levels to be familiar with. There is full pool, as the name implies it tells you the lake level in feet about sea level when the lake is considered full. There can be winter pool if a lake is drawn down to allow from spring runoff. There are flood levels etc.

Looking at this site it appears that the lake is kept in a pretty narrow range from about 446 to 449 feet above mean sea level. Full pool is 450 feet above MSL

http://lakehavasu.water-data.com/

This chart shows high and low water levels since the dam was filled
http://lakehavasu.water-data.com/index2.php

Now contrast that to Lake Mead which is 151feet below full pool
http://mead.uslakes.info/level.asp

 

[mash on it]

I went on google and typed in Colorado River Water Levels

Took me to the USBR website where they update the Davis Dam, Parker Dam schedule for releasing water.

How do you guys determine if they're releasing this many units, the water levels at lets say Needles bridge will be ok to go through, or levels at Topok are going to be high enough, etc?

Seeing pictures of the docks at Topock sitting on the dirt make me wonder what the river right there looks like and how deep it will be.

Id like to take my boat out sometime but want to make sure if i take it out this winter ill be able to run up river to Topock and be ok.

I've only had my boat 1 season and haven't been on the water in the winter time, so i'm curious.

In short, experience and sometimes a wild ass guess.

1 unit = 4600 CFS. 5 units is all 'WFO'.

Because the water is let out of Davis dam, it takes a while to get to Needles.

At Needles bridge there is a water gauging station. I compare the release at the dam with the Needles bridge gauge.

If water is released at 0500-0600, that water will reach Needles at approx 1700-1800 ( approx. 12 hours.)

There is also an elevation figure, too. at 1 unit, elev. ~453', and 5 units ~459' or so.

There is also RS41. Another gauging station, near Devil's Elbow. I usually don't go that far down river, as I-40/Topock is ~45 miles one way for me.

Then again, I don't own a prop, either.

Hope this helps.

Dan'l

 

[boatnam2]

Parker can get down pretty good also, never really payed much attention to it unless heading up river, my buoy is about 50ft from shore and in about 4-5 ft of water, more then a few times it was sitting in the mud.

 

[SoCalDave]

In short, experience and sometimes a wild ass guess.

1 unit = 4600 CFS. 5 units is all 'WFO'.

Because the water is let out of Davis dam, it takes a while to get to Needles.

At Needles bridge there is a water gauging station. I compare the release at the dam with the Needles bridge gauge.

If water is released at 0500-0600, that water will reach Needles at approx 1700-1800 ( approx. 12 hours.)

There is also an elevation figure, too. at 1 unit, elev. ~453', and 5 units ~459' or so.

There is also RS41. Another gauging station, near Devil's Elbow. I usually don't go that far down river, as I-40/Topock is ~45 miles one way for me.

Then again, I don't own a prop, either.

Hope this helps.

Dan'l

^^^This time frame is what you need to take into consideration. I never realized it takes the water released from Davis dam 10-12 hours to reach Needles until about 3 years ago. :yikes

 

[Boat 405]

Down on the lower river by Martinez and Hidden Shores. I have been looking at the USBR website for years now and I use the info gathered at Martinez as an indicator of High or Low water for the area and also the CFS number.

186 and up is pretty much full with almost no sandbars showing

185 to 186 is a good level for pretty much all boats and very few sandbars showing but enough to accommodate summer weekend users

184 to 185 is low, lots of sandbars showing, tread carefully in areas that you are not familiar with any kind of prop boat

183 to 184 is typical this time of year on the weekends just about all sandbars are out of water by a couple of feet

182 to 183 is time to walk from one side of the river to the other side....

These numbers are actually elevations from sea level.


5000 to 6000 cfs is lower flow

6000 to 7000 cfs is good flow

7000 and up cfs is great for boaters and farming who have ordered water

Since a lot of the farmers don't work full weekend schedules, the water is always drawn down on friday and then brought back up on sunday afternoon.

Wednesday and Thursday and usually the highest water level and cfs.

 

[kiethco]

If you're boating from Havasu 4 units at or after 10:00 A.M. and you'll have no problems going all the way to Needles. If you have good river knowledge you can run all the way to Laughlin, easily at 4 units. 5 is better, but you wont see 5 much after Memorial day.
That being said, I've lost props due to pushing the envelope.(3 in 20 years, it's a learning curve, lol) The shallowest parts are in front of the Vets memorial by Lazy Harrys and north of that around the bend. Some of the most rewarding and satisfying boating for my family has been making the Laughlin to Havasu run. We did it twice Memorial weekend 2016. I'll be doing it again this April!

 

[RCDave]

In short, experience and sometimes a wild ass guess.

1 unit = 4600 CFS. 5 units is all 'WFO'.

Because the water is let out of Davis dam, it takes a while to get to Needles.

At Needles bridge there is a water gauging station. I compare the release at the dam with the Needles bridge gauge.

If water is released at 0500-0600, that water will reach Needles at approx 1700-1800 ( approx. 12 hours.)

There is also an elevation figure, too. at 1 unit, elev. ~453', and 5 units ~459' or so.

There is also RS41. Another gauging station, near Devil's Elbow. I usually don't go that far down river, as I-40/Topock is ~45 miles one way for me.

Then again, I don't own a prop, either.

Hope this helps.

Dan'l

This is a BINGO.

 

[buck35]

Down on the lower river by Martinez and Hidden Shores. I have been looking at the USBR website for years now and I use the info gathered at Martinez as an indicator of High or Low water for the area and also the CFS number.

186 and up is pretty much full with almost no sandbars showing

185 to 186 is a good level for pretty much all boats and very few sandbars showing but enough to accommodate summer weekend users

184 to 185 is low, lots of sandbars showing, tread carefully in areas that you are not familiar with any kind of prop boat

183 to 184 is typical this time of year on the weekends just about all sandbars are out of water by a couple of feet

182 to 183 is time to walk from one side of the river to the other side....

These numbers are actually elevations from sea level.


5000 to 6000 cfs is lower flow

6000 to 7000 cfs is good flow

7000 and up cfs is great for boaters and farming who have ordered water

Since a lot of the farmers don't work full weekend schedules, the water is always drawn down on friday and then brought back up on sunday afternoon.

Wednesday and Thursday and usually the highest water level and cfs.

Dayam ! I live on the Columbia and it runs about 100,000 cfs in slow times !:yikes big ass river to say the least!