Keeping an eye on storms, water

Weather forecasters and water officials from throughout western Nevada continue to keep one eye on this week’s storms and the other on the flow of water in the area’s rivers.

The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District reported Tuesday that water from the V-line canal emergency weir and spillway has reached U.S. Highway 95 south of Fallon and is flowing under the recently installed drainage culverts and heading toward Carson Lake.

The Nevada Department of Transportation and Ames Construction installed culverts along a three-mile stretch of the highway. A similar project on U.S. Highway 50 wrapped up last week.

The latest weather forecast is calling for a chance of rain in the valleys, but the National Weather Service reports a Sierra ridge is forming that will result in winds of up to 50 miles per hour in the valleys. Snowfall will amount to 2-3 inches in the Tahoe Basin. The NWS said the Reno-Carson City area would see a chance of rain today through Thursday night.

The NWS also said a fast-moving spring storm should arrive in the area by Easter Sunday, and the basin and range of which the Lahontan Valley is part shows no chance of precipitation until late Sunday night or Monday morning.

TCID recorded the flow of the Carson River at Bafford Lane at 1,082 cubic feet per second and 2,516 cfs below the reservoir.

Lahontan Reservoir’s level on Tuesday was 236,853 acre-feet.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service released a report based on April 1 snow totals in the Sierra. The Truckee Basin is 227 percent of average with 194 inches of snow depth and 83.7 percent of water depth.

The snow pack ranges from 103-131 percent across the rest of Northern Nevada.

This was a new record for April 1.