UPDATE: This morning I thought woke up thinking about the written comment from BoR, “Moving into La Nina trends, which could mean a warmer and wetter winter for Central Oregon”, which I repeated in the post below. So, I looked to NOAA which stated that a La Nina typically makes Oregon cooler and wetter. Go figure. Regardless, the Crooked River should be high for some time.

ORIGINAL POST: You may have already seen this chart showing the recent increase in flows out of Prineville Reservoir into the Crooked River. I took a look after receiving the notes this morning from the monthly water operations call that occurred two days ago (Feb. 5). You should expect high flows for some time. The Ochocos are experiencing an above average snow year. As a result, while Prineville Reservoir is 57% full as of this morning, it does not have remaining storage capacity to accept what is anticipated to be a large amount of runoff (perhaps 300% of normal) when temperatures increase in the spring or from a rain on snow event. The notes also point out that a developing La Nina could bring warmer temperatures and precipitation as rain. As a result, outflows into the Crooked River could be high for “extended” periods, likely for months. This is bad news for fishing this winter but good news for summer fishing and good news for the record number of steelhead that are currently attempting to make their way up the Crooked River.