Year End Summary for 2023
YEAR END SUMMARY STATION NAME: South Branch Root River nr Carimona, CSAH12 STATION NUMBER: H43067001 YEAR: 2023 PREPARED BY: Dan Plovnick, dan.plovnick@state.mn.us CLIMATE SUMMARY: 2023 - Division 9: The first four months of the year were slightly warm, with near-normal precipitation. Temperatures averaged 0.3^ F above the 1991-2020 normals, with precipitation averaging about 2% (or about 0.2 inches) above normal. A large rainfall event contributed to above-normal precipitation in May, but the second half of the month turned dry and very warm, remaining that way with only minor variations, through the growing season and beyond. The 6-month May-through-October period was the 9th warmest on record back to 1895, with precipitation averaging 7.61 inches (30%) below normal. The US Drought Monitor indicated moderate drought conditions developing during June, severe and extreme conditions beginning in July, and with exceptional drought_the highest category_affecting the division's southern border counties in September. Severe weather was scarce during the year. The 2-5 inches of rain from May 10-14 and July 25-26 produced little to no flooding in the area. Episodes of intense wildfire smoke marked the otherwise warm and dry growing season. As of December 1, the seasonal snowpack had not been established anywhere in the area. STATION OPERATION SUMMARY: Is this site monitored year round? NO Open water dates - estimated Ice out and Ice in: Ice out was 2/11/23, full ice in occurred after the monitoring season. Data was processed up through 12/7/23, the day after the last MDA site visit. Summary of equipment - related factors that impacted data collection: No issues were reported, the logger tracked well with hand measurements and few data corrections were needed. A majority of the year was coded good quality. DISCHARGE SUMMARY: Number of flow measurements for monitoring season: 7 Was the full range of flows measured for the season? NO The highest gauged flow was 305 cfs (3/8/23), and the highest recorded daily flow was 726 cfs (2/28/23). Low flows were adequately measured: the lowest measured flow was 23.4 cfs on 9/20/23 and the lowest recorded flow was 12.7 cfs on 11/27/23. The lowest daily flow was 21.2 cfs on 12/6/23. Was a new rating developed? YES New rating 12 for 2023 lowered validated limit and added a low descriptor point below the new 9/20/23 low flow measurement at 10.188/22.6. Left rating shape for this year, if low flow measurements in 2024 follow the trend at the bottom, a new rating may be needed for 2024. Left quality codes as is, the late 2023 measurements in Aug and Nov are fair quality with light veg noted. Left extrapolated limits. General summary of control changes/shifts needed: Scour shifts were needed for the 2/17, 3/8, and 4/26 msmts. Vegetation/depositional shifts were needed for the 8/1, 9/20, and 11/1 shifts. Quality of computed daily discharges: Discharges for the spring and summer were mainly coded fair and poor, and late August to the end of the monitoring season mostly fell in the estimated portion of the rating. PRECIPITATION DATA OVERVIEW: Was precipitation data collected at this site? YES Climatological liquid precipitation period: 5/6/23 - 10/31/23 Was there a complete and acceptable precipitation record for this period? NO There was a wiring issue with the rain bucket that caused precip to increment without tips. This was fixed on 5/5/23, but data from 5/1-5/5 had to be deleted. Also, per SCO review,the bucket might have lost some precip during heavy precip on 10/26/23, so values from that day were deleted. All other dates were determined to be valid. CONTINUOUS WATER QUALITY SUMMARY: A water temperature probe was deployed at the station for the full year. There was no indication of the probe being buried, out of water, or affected by storm events. The data was coded fair for a majority of the open water season due to differences between the logged temperature and site visit hand readings.