Below-normal precipitation in the upper Missouri Basin during June resulted in slightly below-average June runoff. As a result, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reduced water releases from Gavins Point Dam to 30,000 cubic feet per second.
The 2020 calendar year upper basin runoff forecast, updated on July 1, is 31.2 Million Acre Feet, 121 percent of average. Average annual runoff for the upper basin is 25.8 million-acre feet. While above average, the forecast is welcomed along the Missouri River Basin, plagued by flooding last year.
Work continues along the river to repair and improve levees that protect farmland. Much of that runoff was due to wet soil conditions early this spring and snowmelt runoff. John Remus, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division, says, “remaining summer runoff will depend on rainfall events.”
Soils continue to dry out in the upper Missouri River Basin due to well-below normal precipitation and warmer-than-normal temperatures. And, drought conditions have expanded across much of western portion of the Basin.