Portland-Area Heavy Rains Helping Fill Low Reservoirs, Says Corps

PORTLAND, OR — Grab a raft and enjoy the ride on the river. The National Weather Service says that the atmospheric river that's been dumping rain on the region and will continue to do through Tuesday evening. there will be some breaks.

While the rain makes some Oregonians feel behind because they realize that Noah had his ark built BEFORE the rains started, it's a much needed development.

The Army Corps of Engineers operates the Willamette Valley Project's 13 reservoirs. The Corps says that they are only 9 percent full as of Monday.

So, while the Corps' operations project manager for the Willamette and Rogue River Basins Erik Petersen is happy to see rain, he adds that it's important to realize it's providing an almost-literal drop in the bucket.

"While every drop of precipitation helps right now, the atmospheric river appears to be" focused on areas north of the Willamette Valley," Petersen says. "We may catch up a little, but we would have preferred this front expanded further south.

"We still have time before summer, but we sure need rain."

Petersen says that while the Willamette Valley has seen 93 percent of normal precipitation this year so far, most of it feel before refill season, which starts on February 1. And some of the precipitation that has fallen, came down as snow.

As a result, the snowpack is 106 percent of median for this time of year.

Tom Coming of the Corps of Engineers says that the problem is that most years snowfall "accounts for a relatively small portion of the system's storage."