Amerson River Park access closed again. What’s causing dangerously high flows?
Access to the Ocmulgee River at Amerson River Park was closed until further notice due to the significant speed of the water, Macon-Bibb County officials announced Wednesday, just before Independence Day weekend.
The river closure was due to the fact that water was flowing over 3,000 cubic feet per second, according to a news release. It will remain closed until the flow drops below at least 2,000 cubic feet per second.
“We want people to stay safe this 4th of July week, and the river can be dangerous under normal circumstances, but as we have witnessed in the past, it can be especially hazardous during high flow rates,” said county Fire Chief Shane Edwards. “It’s just not worth the risk.”
County officials will monitor river levels hour by hour, according to Edwards, in hopes to reopen in time for the holiday weekend.
“We know people want to be on the river as soon as possible,” he said.
This is the second time in recent weeks that access has been closed due to high water flow. The first time was towards the end of May.
What’s causing the high water flow?
Rivers flow faster when carrying more water, and this summer has been especially wet, with 8 inches of rain in June and 6 inches in May, according to the National Weather Service.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted this Summer to be wetter than usual, which doesn’t necessarily mean more rain events, but rather more intense storms when it does rain.
This is in part due to climate change causing warming temperatures. As the climate warms, there’s more water vapor in the atmosphere, which leads to much more prolific rainfall.
“We do know that because the temperatures are warmer, the water vapor content of the atmosphere is going up, and that’s one of the ingredients for rain, which why some of the long term predictions indicate we’re likely to see more rain in the future, because humidity is going up,” said Pam Knox, director of the University of Georgia Weather Network.
The vertical structure of the atmosphere is changing, too, which is also changes the type of rainfall we get.
“More of the heat is being trapped near the surface of the earth, because that heat that used to get (to the stratosphere) is now trapped by greenhouse gasses,” Knox said.
“And so what we do think is going to happen is, instead of having more frontal long term rain events, where it rains just a little bit for a long time period, as temperatures get warmer, we expect to see more convection, so more thunderstorms, and the thunderstorms ... we do think that they’re going to move slower, and we do think they’re going to rain more on one place because they move slower.”
