CO-OP is reinitiating daily drought monitoring and reporting today because Potomac River flow at the US Geological Survey’s stream gage at Point of Rocks, Maryland, is approaching the 2000 cubic feet per second (cfs), CO-OP's daily monitoring threshold. According to the Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center, no rainfall is expected in the basin over the next three days.
Thank you all for your ongoing successful submission of withdrawal, storage, and discharge data through regular emails! Please continue to keep up with those submissions on a daily basis and make sure the data is sent by 8:00 am for the duration of this period of drought monitoring. If you have any questions, please contact us via coop@icprb.org.
Daily flows:
Little Falls gage flow 2023-08-17: 905 MGD (1400 cfs)
Little Falls gage flow 2023-08-18: 827 MGD (est., based on recently available real-time data) (1280 cfs)
Note: Gage flow at Little Falls is measured after water supply withdrawals.
Point of Rocks flow 2023-08-17: 1390 MGD (2150 cfs)
Point of Rocks flow 2023-08-18: 1351 MGD (est., based on recently available real-time data) (2090 cfs)
Yesterday's Washington metropolitan area Potomac River withdrawals and discharges (2023-08-17):
Fairfax Water Corbalis withdrawal (Potomac): 109 MGD
WSSC Water Potomac withdrawal: 132 MGD
Washington Aqueduct withdrawal: 82 MGD
Loudoun Water withdrawal: 12 MGD
Loudoun Water Broad Run discharge: 5 MGD
Total Potomac withdrawal: 334 MGD
Total net Potomac withdrawal: 329 MGD
Loudoun Water Potomac River (PR) flow values for drought operations protocol (based on yesterday's flows):
QPR: 2150 cfs
QPR, obs: 2150 cfs
QPR, WS: 0 cfs
Note to Loudoun Water: See NWS ensemble flow forecasts (HEFS, GEFS, NAEFS) for Point of Rocks flow for the next 7 days – see https://www.weather.gov/erh/mmefs_marfc?id=PORM2&model=NAEFS.