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Area rivers have peaked

Aspen Times Staff Report
Aspen CO, Colorado

EMMA ” Rivers and streams in Colorado’s central mountains have probably peaked thanks to recent warm weather and are starting a slow decrease in flow, according to the National Weather Service.

“A lot of them have been holding steady over the last week or so,” said Troy Lindquist, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. “We should have seen our seasonal peaks just about everywhere at this point.”

The streamflow levels still could surge higher because of rainstorms, Lindquist noted. However, the forecast calls for warm, mostly dry weather into next week.



The U.S. Geological Survey’s gauging station on the Roaring Fork River near Emma recorded a flow at about 4,700 cubic feet per second (cfs) early Friday. That brought the river close to the peak recorded on June 20. Flows dropped below 4,000 cfs on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before shooting up on Thursday.

The median flow for this time at the Emma gauging station is about 1,000 cfs. Lindquist said the peak came slightly later than usual this year because of the large amount of snow on high peaks. That snowpack didn’t start melting until recently because of the cool spring.




The gauging station near Emma is the first below the Roaring Fork River’s confluence with the Fryingpan River. Go to http://www.sopris.net for access to gauging readings throughout the region.