Year End Summary for 48020001

Year End Summary for 2022

YEAR END SUMMARY
STATION NAME: Cedar River nr Austin, MN
STATION NUMBER: E48020001
YEAR: 2022
PREPARED BY: Jennifer Ender, jennifer.ender@state.mn.us

CLIMATE SUMMARY: The first four months of the year were cool and slightly dry, with temperatures averaging 4.3^ F lower, and precipitation averaging 0.6 inches or about 8% lower than 1991-2020 normals. Dry conditions in June, and the 4th driest September on record, left the May-September precipitation season an average of 3.7 inches and about 16% drier than normal, with temperatures averaging 0.9^ F above normal. Several outbreaks of severe convective storms affected the area in May and June, but there were no major rainfall or flash-flooding episodes during the precipitation season. A major storm December 13-17 dropped 2 to 11 inches of snow and 0.50 to 1.5 inches of total precipitation. Additional snows the following week 4 to 12 inches of snow cover, ranking between the 60th and 95th percentile for late December.

STATION OPERATION SUMMARY:
This station operates year-round, but precipitation is only monitored during the liquid precipitation season.
Is this site monitored year round? NO, not with the solitax and nitratax
Open water dates - estimated Ice out and Ice in:
Open water sites ONLY. Period of data record (if different from ice out/ice in dates): Equipment was deployed on March 2nd and retrieved November 1st.
Summary of equipment - related factors that impacted data collection: No problems that caused issues.

CONTINUOUS WATER QUALITY SUMMARY: A HACH solitax and nitratax were deployed in pvc pipe on a sled system on the LEW on the downstream side of the bridge. Both sensors were deployed on March 2nd and retrieved on November 1st. Both sensors had maintenance and calibration performed by HACH prior to deployment. Monthly cleaning and calibration checks were also performed by PCA staff. Side-by-side calibration checks were done prior to cleaning the sensors and also done after the sensors were cleaned and this were perfomred once a month. Nitrate were taken to compare to the sensors readings. MDA also deployed equipment next to our equipment during the sampling season. Several times MDA pulled all the equipment out of the water to tend to their equipment. Sensor ran well all season.

Year End Summary for 48020001

Year End Summary for 2021

YEAR END SUMMARY
STATION NAME: Cedar River nr Austin, MN
STATION NUMBER: E48020001
YEAR: 2021
PREPARED BY: Jennifer Ender, jennifer.ender@state.mn.us

CLIMATE SUMMARY: After a generally mild winter with normal to below-normal snowfall, warm and dry conditions persisted during the May-through-October liquid precipitation season, leading to some drought designations. Precipitation from May through October averaged about 85% of normal, or just under 4 inches below normal. May through July was dry, with an average of just under 11 inches of rain falling over the 3-month period (normal would have been just under 14.5 inches). June had bouts of extreme heat, and May through October averaged just 2.5 degrees F above normal. Normal to above-normal precipitation during late summer and autumn helped drought conditions improve, and areas near the Mississippi River spent little time in official drought designations. Heavy rain fell on August 26-27, with 3-5 inches in many areas. Mean temperatures fell below freezing in early November, with accumulating snows most areas by early December.

CONTINUOUS WATER QUALITY SUMMARY: A HACH solitax and nitratax were deployed in pvc pipe on a sled system on the LEW on the downstream side of the bridge. Both sensors were deployed on April 28th and retrieved on November 8th. Both sensors had maintenance and calibration performed by HACH twice during the sampling season. Monthly cleaning and calibration checks were also performed by PCA staff. Side-by-side calibration checks were done prior to cleaning the sensors and also done after the sensors were cleaned and this were perfomred once a month. Nitrate and tss samples were taken to compare to the sensors readings.

Year End Summary for 48020001

Year End Summary for 2020

YEAR END SUMMARY
STATION NAME: Cedar River nr Austin, MN
STATION NUMBER: H48005001
YEAR:2020
PREPARED BY: Jennifer Ender

Summary is for nitrate and turbidity data.

CLIMATE SUMMARY: Mild conditions and near-normal snowfall January through into April topped off a moderately snowy early winter, leading to normal to slightly above-normal seasonal snowfall totals of 35-55 inches. The May-September growing season was warm and slightly wet, punctuated by very warm June through August conditions, and occasional bouts of heavy rainfall. A widespread heavy rainfall event on June 28-29 produced 4-6 inches near the Cannon and Vermillion rivers, with other 2-4-inch rains falling on May 17 and June 10. Temperatures fell below freezing in early October, but with little precipitation falling, the liquid precipitation season extended to October 15. Snow fell occasionally from mid-October into early November, with most of the area seeing totals of 4-8 inches by the end of November. Extreme warmth melted much of the snow during early-mid November, and the rest was melted by persistently mild conditions during the remainder of the month. No snow was on the ground as of December 1.

STATION OPERATION SUMMARY:
Is this site monitored year round? NO
Open water sites ONLY. Period of data record (if different from ice out/ice in dates): June 17, 2020 - November 5, 2020
Summary of equipment - related factors that impacted data collection: An error message was seen on August 5th and the Nitratax sensor was sent in for maintenance while a different sensor was deployed in its place for the remainder of the season. There were seven wq samples taken that were compared to the data that all fell within the 20% threshold for nitrate. There is a gap in the turbidity data due to when the nitratax sensor were swapped out the sampling interval was changed to 10 minutes; causing more data points to be recorded so next site visit the data had been eating it's tail. Side-by-side calibration checks were done prior to cleaning the sensors and also done after the sensors were cleaned and this were perfomred once a month.

CONTINUOUS WATER QUALITY SUMMARY: Nitratax and solitax were deployed next to each other on downstream side of bridge on a sled system along the left bank. Nitratax and solitax was deployed on June 17th and retrieved on November 5th. Both the nitratax and solitax had maintenance and calibration done by HACH on 6/9/2020 prior to deployment. Cleaning and calibration checks were performed once a month along with a data download. On August 5th the nitratax sensor was giving an error message. The sensor was sent in for repair meanwhile a different sensor was deployed in it's place for the remainder of the sampling season.

DISCLAIMER: In the spring and summer of 2020, field work was limited due to the COVID 19 related travel and work restrictions. Because of this, there are less frequent discharge measurements, which can lead to more uncertainty and data estimation. This is reflected in the quality codes of the discharge data.