Monitoring Reports

This is the third and last day of our 2020 Washington metropolitan area (WMA) annual drought exercise. Reported below are actual recent conditions and simulated drought operations.

Today we requested a simulated Little Seneca release of 22 MGD. This was based on the drought scenario and not yesterday’s actual release. We will provide analysis on the travel time of this test release in our report. You can follow the release at the USGS gage 01645000 SENECA CREEK AT DAWSONVILLE, MD here.

**************************

RECENT CONDITIONS – ACTUAL

An actual Little Seneca test release was initiated this morning at 10:00 AM. The planned release rate was 400 MGD, but during ramping up the release, it was found that the maximum possible rate is 275 MGD. You can follow the release at the USGS 01645000 SENECA CREEK AT DAWSONVILLE, MD here: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?01645000.

Our afternoon report appears below. Note that an ACTUAL test release from Little Seneca Reservoir has been approved by the CO-OP General Managers and is planned to be initiated tomorrow morning at 10 AM at a rate of 400 million gallons per day (MGD) and continued for 12 hours. Due to this release, flow in Seneca Creek will be elevated between approximately 10 AM on November 17 and 6 AM on November 18.

**************************
RECENT CONDITIONS – ACTUAL

Today is the first day of the 2020 Washington Metropolitan Area Drought Exercise, which will be conducted from Monday, November 16 through Wednesday, November 18.

From the suppliers we need

CONCLUSION OF THE DROUGHT EXERCISE - Afternoon simulated Potomac flow and demand update (Tuesday 10/11/2020) - DROUGHT EXERCISE

This afternoon email report concludes CO-OP's 2016 Washington Metropolitan Area Drought Exercise. We conduct these exercises every year to practice communications and operational procedures that would be used in case of actual low flow conditions in the Potomac River. Thank you all for helping us stay well prepared for drought!

ACTUAL - Basin and system conditions:

There are no changes in requested SIMULATED operations this afternoon.

ACTUAL - Basin and system conditions:

Yesterday's basin-wide average precipitation (above Little Falls):
0.033 inches
(based on CO-OP's Low Flow Forecast System analysis of MARFC gridded multisensor precipitation estimates)

There are no changes in requested SIMULATED operations this afternoon.

ACTUAL - Basin and system conditions:

Yesterday's basin-wide average precipitation (above Little Falls):
0.689 inches
(based on CO-OP's Low Flow Forecast System analysis of MARFC gridded quantitative precipitation estimates)

There are no changes in requested SIMULATED operations this afternoon.

ACTUAL - Basin and system conditions:

Yesterday's basin-wide average precipitation (above Little Falls):
0.052 inches
(based on CO-OP's Low Flow Forecast System analysis of MARFC gridded quantitative precipitation estimates)

There are no changes in requested SIMULATED operations this afternoon.

ACTUAL - Basin and system conditions:

Yesterday's basin-wide average precipitation (above Little Falls):
0 inches
(based on CO-OP's Low Flow Forecast System analysis of MARFC gridded quantitative precipitation estimates)

DROUGHT EXERCISE - Afternoon simulated Potomac flow and demand update (Wednesday 10/05/2020) - DROUGHT EXERCISE

Yesterday's basin-wide average precipitation (above Little Falls):
0 inches
(based on CO-OP's Low Flow Forecast System analysis of MARFC gridded quantitative precipitation estimates)