| An extremely warm, and often rainy, month of May greatly depleted the snowpack in the northern reaches of the Flathead basin. Energy Keepers coordinated with the Army Corps of Engineers to actively update flood risk management calculations to ensure the high May runoff was captured to refill the lake. The snowpack that would normally support continued high flows through the month of June and into early July was all but gone at the end of May. The current June streamflow volume forecast is at 40% of average and July is at 34% of average- a decrease from the last operation update. The SKQ project decreased the lake outflow to minimum streamflow requirements on June 3. The SKQ project will continue to operate at minimum flow requirements until the lake levels have stabilized. However, due to the low inflow into the lake, the elevation began to drop last week and is expected to continue to drop until approximately mid-July. Without substantial precipitation or an increase in streamflows, the lowest level is anticipated to be near 22 inches or 1.8 feet below full pool. |
