Summit County authorities are closing the Blue River in Silverthorne for rising whitewater.
This closure runs from just below Dillon Dam to 6th Street Bridge and is good for all watercraft.
“Those of us who have been here a long time know when it’s this high there is inches between the (6th street) bridge and water,” Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons tells Tom Fricke on the Krystal 93 morning show today.
Denver Water is cranking up outflows at the dam, from 700 cubic feet per second (cfs) yesterday to an estimated 1300 cfs this weekend.
By next week the Blue River could reach 1600 cfs.
That is still below flood stage of 1800 cfs, but the fastest the Blue has run in five years.
“This is something we do when it gets this high,” FitzSimons says. “It’s nothing odd.”
The Blue River closure is good from noon today until water drops below about 1000 cfs. No estimate for when that will happen.
This first week of June has been the hottest of the year in Summit, averaging 52 degrees at the Krystalized Weather Station in Dillon with no overnight freeze. Yesterday was 72 degrees.
Forecasters at the National Weather Service say local temperatures could break the low ‘80s today.
‘These are not normal conditions’
Rivers will be ranging all weekend. So will avalanche danger.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center issued a special avalanche advisory for the entire state, saying wet slab avalanches are massive right now.
“Change your travel plans to avoid steep slopes if surface crusts become unsupportable and you sink into wet, unconsolidated snow, or you hear collapsing sounds,” CAIC forecasters write in today’s advisory. “These are not normal conditions for early June. Adjust your objectives accordingly.”