Following a very warm start to August, more typical late summer weather returned, bringing the greatest single storm rain amount since early June. Now, this time of year a reasonable indicator of regional precipitation amounts is the response of rivers. Unfortunately, there is very little river level monitoring by agencies on the Seward Peninsula.
There used to be measurements of the Snake River level at the Teller Road bridge, but those ended some years ago, and there's never been any consistent measurements on the Nome River. The USGS river gauge at Council has been in place for some years and is still working, and this showed about a three foot rise in the river water level. That translates to about a four fold increase in the amount of water from the recent rains.
The only other river gauge in the region is on the lower Unalakleet River, which showed about 18 inches rise in the water level. However, the USGS has not published the information needed to convert those water levels into changes in water volume.
