With the water level only rising .37" over the past ten hours, DOOM IS OFF, boys and girls. If the catchment area of the dam had actually received three inches of rain since the start of the "storm," the reservoir level should have risen at least a couple of feet by now. The California Department of Water Resources is showing only .02" of rain fell last night at the dam:
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryF?s=ORO
...whereas, when I went to bed last night, the National Weather was calling for 1.5" during the night. Either DWR is lying about all the figures, or NWS was off by a factor of 75.
THANK THE GOOD LORD.
I think TPTB were playing us with the weather data. Either that, or there is some other diversion channel somewhere that no one knows about.
Nothing else can explain that type of extremely low reservoir rise if they really got the 3" in the catchment area that The National Weather Service had predicted.
The predictions for the next rain event (Saturday noon-Sunday night) has decreased a bit too, from 1.44" to just 1.20".
I would much rather that all the doomsayers in the world be wrong and eat humble pie than have that dam (and probably the country) collapse.
Still, this has a very odd feel about it... Like somebody was playing the "truther"/"citizen reported" community all along.
Maybe...
I had predicted 894-896' by Monday. Now I am revising that down to 892-893'. That is still ridiculously high with more rain predicted and a "perfectly fine" main spillway sitting idle, and it is definitely GROSS NEGLIGENCE on DWR's part.
Now, could there still be an unexpected "blow out" at the gates (or elsewhere) simply as a result of age and high water (and not from the feared overtopping?) Of course, there could be.