Teton River Distribution Project: March 2020

Teton River Distribution Project

The Teton River Distribution Project was created by 9th and 12th Judicial Districts Court for the 2017 irrigation season. Water users throughout the basin petitioned for the appointment of water commissioners in 2016. In its inaugural irrigation season, the project proved to be a success based on comments received from water users throughout the basin. Public meetings will be held in the October and November 2017 to address any and all issues that arise during the 2017 administrative effort.

This website is set up in a blog format. Chief Water Commissioner Peter Fritsch is authorized to post photos and comments on stream conditions, priority date cutoffs, etc. Water users may post questions to the blog that will be answered as quickly as possible. This website is an effort to create transparency and effective decision making on behalf of the Teton River Distribution Project.

Teton River Streamflow Quick Links
Upper Teton River USGS Realtime Gauge
Middle Teton River USGS Realtime Gauge
Lower Teton River USGS Realtime Gauge
Teton River Below Hwy 221 Realtime Gauge - Realtime
Teton River above Springhill Reach – Realtime

Deep Creek at Pishkun Bridge

Teton River at Buck Bridge

These last three gauges are updated manually by Aaron Fiaschetti on a weekly basis depending on his schedule.

Lower Spring Creek
Upper Spring Creek
Teton River below Hwy 287, above Deep Creek

Daily Average Streamflow Website

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

March 1 Hyrdrologic Outlook for Teton River Basin & 3/25 Snowpack Map

Precipitation was above average at mountain locations in the Sun-Teton-Marias River basin during February. No significant snowstorms stand out in February, but mountain snowfall was consistent throughout the month. New snow was recorded 22 of 29 days during February at Mount Lockhart SNOTEL.

The basin-wide snowpack is currently well above normal, and it is near its typical annual peak, which doesn’t usually occur until mid-April. With that said, water year precipitation is currently near to below average in the Sun-Teton-Marias River basin.

This difference can be attributed to the significant amount of snow that fell before October 1st and the relatively dry November and December. Near to above normal snowpack has resulted in forecasts within the basin which are near to slightly above average for the Apr 1st – July 31st period.

March 25 NRCS Snowpack Map

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Daily Average Streamflow Data Downloads

To calculate the FWP instream reservations, we are using daily average streamflows at the Springhill Gauge. The daily averages smooth out the 24hr high and low flows to a average flow, which can then be doubled to calculate acre-feet for purposes of billing like all other users in the drainage.

DNRC is calculating and updating the daily average streamflow data as early as possible after the 1st of each month to provide Scot Sessions the data to create his tabulation of FWP water.

I have added the link to the top of the website where all the stream gauge links are located. To download the stream flows, you need microsoft excel. I am not sure how old a version can successfully download the data.

If you can't download and would really like to see it, email me and I will send you a PDF copy of it that most anyone can open.

February 2020 RODs

Zone 2 ROD

FWP ROD