Friday October 30, 2026
Afternoon Update.
Vallecito Reservoir storage is just below 108,500 acre feet (af) and still falling
Releases are right at 1,900 cfs
Inflows are still falling and near 800 cfs
The National Weather Service's update this morning still shows a strong storm through the weekend, particularly on Sunday into Monday morning. The current forecast is for a snow level near 11,000 feet. That is very good news because snow will not run off into Vallecito until some later date. The snow level will drop on Monday morning as cold air comes in behind the storm. There still could be over 2" of rain below 11,000 feet, and the concerns are still there.
Vallecito will continue to drop from at least another 48 hours but is forecast to increase slightly in elevation on Monday morning (see below). This will still be 3 feet below where we peaked after the last storm. The level could come back up a little bit higher than forecasted, and we are preparing for such a contingency. The reservoir will have around 20,000 af of storage available when the strongest part of the storm arrives Sunday.
The flows in the Town of Ignacio are still high and mostly due to the high releases out of Vallecito. The levels below Vallecito through Ignacio are still below the Army Corp safe channel capacity. The emergency managers are working on contingencies and have well thought out plans for low-lying areas going into the weekend. Thanks for all their help.
The plan for Saturday afternoon is to reduce the releases out of Vallecito to lessen the flow through Ignacio and make room for low level rains along with the increase in flows associated with the rains. The releases since the last storm have been high to specifically create more room in the reservoir and allow for the 20,000 af of space. This has created more flexibility to help manage the flows downstream of the reservoir during the upcoming storm.
There are more meetings scheduled with emergency management, local modelers, BOR staff, and other participants throughout the ongoing weather event.
Please see the latest graph below and continue to use the Colorado Division of Water Resources streamflow website for the Pine River drainage, and NOAA forecasts along with other useful tools.
Thank you for all your attention to these matters and for all your assistance. Greatly Appreciated
David Hofmann
