Over the past few days, the Ballard Locks dam had the highest water flow ever measured since recordings began in 1946.
Bill Dowell from the US Army Corps of Engineers tells My Ballard that between Feb. 7 to 9, the peak inflow was 15,000 – 16,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). The average is around 13,700 cfs.
Luckily, there are no downstream concerns for the Locks dam — all water flows straight out into the Puget Sound. “At the locks there are no downstream risks, and we were releasing as much water as possible through the spillway,” Dowell said.
The last time there was substantial flow was January 2009, but Dowell says this event appears larger than anything else in the database.
Photo: Hiram M. Chittenden Locks on Facebook
According to the Seattle Times, we “tied a rain record” in January. So just imagine this.