Re: Yosemite Valley to be closed, evacuated today.

Yikes! Thought this was an April Fool's Day post for a minute but this sounds like they're anticipating one helluva storm!

How frequently does this happen? I remember last winter (early Jan 2017) they closed the Valley down due to flooding concerns. We were staying up in Yosemite West and had to divert south through Wawona and Oakhurst to get home. It's happening again just over a year later. I don't recall hearing about such an evacuation in previous years. Of course, we've had several years of drought so that may be why.

Also I found it interesting that they mentioned the El Portal gas station and market in the news release. Those aren't in the park nor are they run by the park concessionaire, correct? I'm wondering if they meant the Wawona market and gas station, since it was in the same sentence as the Big Trees Lodge.

It's not too common and generally happens only if there is a warm rain storm falling on snowpack, as is the case with this storm--and of course the 1997 flood.

The El Portal gas station and market are in the El Portal Administrative Area, which is under the jurisdiction of the NPS. They are operated by a park concessionaire, but not Aramark.

Thanks for the info about the El Portal facilities... I wasn't aware that those were within the NPS domain.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2018 06:39AM by FatFlatlander.

Thank's, Basilbop...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2018 02:11PM by troutwild.

photos from the webcams showing water flows where they're not usually found (i.e. where they only occur during a good soaking) (now I see these links aren't to static photos...):







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2018 12:16PM by Not quite The Geezer, but getting there.

Per the Nat'l Weather Service website, the Merced River is at 13.6 feet (12,000 cfs!) at Pohono bridge as of 4pm and looks like it is just about cresting. Flood stage is 10 feet, and Northside and Southside drives are supposed to be closed at 12.5 feet, so this is a pretty significant flooding event. Last year during the January flood event the river crested at 12.7 feet. The NWS site lists some historical crests for the Merced River (although they also list "recent" crests, and they don't have anything later than 2005). Both last year's and this year's recorded levels would be in the top ten according to that list.

The Fresno Bee had some good video of Yosemite Falls and Bridalveil falls roaring, as well as some of the flood impacts in the Valley.

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article208142259.html

The data shows it higher:

04/07/2018 18:00 15.20

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryF?s=POH&d=08-Apr-2018+13:17&span=25hours

I believe the first table at that link shows the NWS forecasted river level, and the second table (with red numbers) shows the actual recorded values. The max value I saw there was 13.73 feet and 12,229 cfs at 18:15 yesterday. Either way, lots of water going down the valley.

NPS video of the flooding:

Comment on video:

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Old Dude

I'll have to look into that. Meanwhile try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usTTc7BWzpM