March 29, 2023 - Water Release from Arizona Reservoirs

[image03292023_rollover.jpg] [image03292023_main.jpg]
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Since December 2022, a series of moisture-laden winter storms have
drenched the West Coast of the United States. In the state of Arizona,
rain storms soaked low elevations while record-breaking snowfall buried
the high country. From July 1, 2022, through March 1, 2023, the
Flagstaff Pulliam Airport received just over 140 inches of snow, the
second-highest total recorded between July 1 to March 1 since data
collection began 101 years ago. At the same time, the weather service
office in Bellemont reported 146.7 inches, smashing their previous
record, which was 115.4 inches in 2009-1010.

Before the February and March storms struck, the National Weather
Service had reported that, as of mid-January 2023, the snow water
equivalent (SWE) in northern Arizona was already as much as 250 percent
of normal. During spring melt, snowpack in the high elevations release
water that is essential to moisten wildlands, agricultural lands, and
for human use, so the high snowpack was good news. However, the
ferocious winter rains had already helped fill reservoirs, including
the large Theodore Roosevelt Lake along the Salt River and the Granite
Reef and Bartlett Dams along the Verde.

Too much of a good thing is, well, something that has to be carefully
managed.

Throughout the year, the Salt River Project (SRP) releases water from
the dams on the Salt and Verde rivers into a series of canals to meet
the water needs of the Valley below. In particularly wet winters when
the reservoirs are nearing capacity, some releases outside of the canal
system are required to make room for additional expected runoff. This
year, for the first year since 2019, the “productive” storms and the
subsequent runoff had filled the reservoirs to near capacity by early
March, prompting water managers to release water from the dams. The
managed release has allowed substantial water flow in the Salt River,
and has caused flooding and road closures in some areas.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board
NASA’s Terra satellite acquired two false-color images of rising waters
along the Salt River below the Theodore Roosevelt Dam on two different
days. The first is on March 1, 2023, prior to releases from the dam,
but after a wet winter. The second was captured on March 27, 2023, when
the river was full and in flood, especially below the Phoenix metro
area. To allow a better comparison of the changes in the landscape, the
images fade into each other, with the dates acquired showing in the
upper left corner.

In this type of false-color image, vegetation appears bright green,
water looks blue, snow appears electric blue, and open land is tan.
Manmade structures, such as the cities in the Phoenix metro area, are
tinted gray. Theodore Roosevelt Lake stretches from northwest to
southeast in the right (east) section of the image, and the Salt River
flows toward the southwest. Prior to release, the Salt River below
Phoenix (lower left corner of the image) was tan and dry, but appears
flooded by March 27.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 3/27/2023
Resolutions: 1km (180.8 KB), 500m (469.9 KB), 250m (287.9
KB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2023-03-29

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