It should come as no surprise that September 2022 precipitation was below average in the upper Missouri River Basin.
According to the Drought Mitigation Center, over 90% of the entire Missouri River basin is currently experiencing some form of abnormally dry conditions or drought, which is an almost 20% increase from the end of August. The 2022 calendar year runoff forecast for the upper Basin, updated on Oct. 1, is 76% of average.
John Remus is the chief of the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. He says September runoff in the upper Missouri River Basin (above Sioux City, Iowa) was 47% of the long-term average and soil conditions continue to be very dry.
Remus says the Corps’ annual fall public meetings will be held the week of Oct. 24-28, 2022. The meeting for the Lake Oahe reservoir will be October 25 at 10am CT at the Casey Tibbs South Dakota Rodeo Center in Fort Pierre.
In mid-September, the US Army Corps posted the draft 2022-2023 Annual Operating Plan for the Missouri River basin on its website. The comment period on the draft plan will be open through Nov. 23, 2022.
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