Ok, here is the 2017 Oroville Dam thread from Metabunk discussing inflows and water levels. You could spend hours here if you look at links.

[link to www.metabunk.org (secure)]

I only went back 2 pages but I am certain that the general estimate was an inch of rain falling as rain on saturated ground would increase the lake 12 feet. The lake was probably high when they calculated that, and I think the broken spillway was running.

See post 33 (the smart administrator). The watershed is 3600 square miles. An inch as rain where 60% runs off and 40% is absorbed by the ground or falls as snow leads to a 96,000 cfs runoff all day.

What can the HPP pass? 15,000 max. That would be 80,000 cfs they can't pass. Up she goes.


This is the main thread to access all the Oville threads. It is totally utterly fantastic and we may need to go back to it the way this year is shaping up:

[link to www.metabunk.org (secure)]

Obviously the old spillway and old ES facts are no longer relevant, but for weather comparisons and water levels it is a gold mine.