Weather & WaterThursday, November 5
The Salt River is running high through the Valley after record fall storms
The Mesa Today team
If you've noticed the Salt River running where it's usually dry, you're not imagining it. SRP says the flood is the biggest on the Salt and Verde rivers since 1993. Flows are falling, but there's no date for boaters to return to Tempe Town Lake.
The Salt and Verde flood is the biggest since 1993
- 54,000
- cubic feet per second released from two SRP dams
- 1993
- last time a flood on the Salt and Verde was this big
- About 8x
- the average Verde inflows expected in October and November
SRP raised releases from Bartlett and Stewart Mountain dams as storms kept hitting the watersheds. SRP's Bo Svoma said reservoirs were at risk of overflowing: "We had to release it so that water didn't go over the top."
- Tempe Town Lake: closed to boating until further notice
- Still open: parks around the lake, plus fishing
- Roads: several riverbed roads in the East and West Valley were set to close
The releases grew over several days as the storms kept coming
- Nov. 1SRP raises releases to 54,000 cubic feet per second; Tempe closes Town Lake to boating.
- Nov. 2SRP expects the larger releases to reach the Valley by 6 p.m.
- Nov. 4SRP says the flood is the biggest on the Salt and Verde since 1993.
Much of the water is headed toward Painted Rock Reservoir near Gila Bend, a flood-control facility the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers runs. For the longer term, SRP and its partners are studying a project that could raise Bartlett Dam to store more water.
Sources: 12News, AZ Family, ABC15 Arizona in Phoenix (KNXV)