Going Out

By Ed Wesely

	TRR photo by Ed Wesely During the late afternoon of September 2, the spectacle of a rushing waterfall on Carley Brook, right, a tributary of the Lackawaxen River, caused dozens of motorists on Route 6, just east of Honesdale, to pull into the parking lot where I snapped the picture. (Click for larger image)

Heavy rain on Labor Day weekend produced the year’s highest water on the Upper Delaware River, with impressive effects on several tributaries. I’ve highlighted the flow with a graph of the Delaware River’s discharge at the Barryville gaging station, located 4.6 miles above Barryville, NY, and 1.6 miles above the mouth of the Lackawaxen River.

The Delaware crested at 12.25 feet at the Barryville gage (17 feet is flood stage) at 7:45 p.m. on September 4, four hours after it crested at Callicoon. Since the distance between gages is 27.4 miles, it means the flow during those peak hours was 6.85 miles per hour!

Note, too, how the water temperature dipped spectacularly between September 2 and September 3 and 4, and how, as water levels dropped, the temperature began to climb.

The difference between peak temperatures and a low point on September 4 is about nine degrees Fahrenheit. Lesser peaks and valleys occur each day between late afternoon and early morning.