Conditions throughout the basin are slowly improving as the extremely wet conditions seen in April and May are being replaced with drier conditions so far in June. Precipitation since the beginning of the month has remained at or below average for all areas of the basin. The map and table shown below indicate that total basin mean precipitation amounts for the first two weeks of June were less than 10 mm (0.5 in) for most of the basin and no more than 25 mm (1 inch) for northern portions of the basin. These amounts correspond to a range of 17th to 32nd percentile, which is less than normal.
These much drier conditions have caused all tributary flows to drop significantly and most are now approaching high normal levels for this time of year. With less water in the system, all major lake inflows have also peaked and are steadily trending downward. As lake inflows are approaching lake outflows, the rise in lake levels are also gradually decreasing.
In the short term, these decreases in flows and levels are highly dependent on continued dry conditions with even moderate rainfall pausing the return to normal conditions. As the basin continues to drain and tributary conditions return to normal, the lake levels will follow suit and continue to drop. This process will take many weeks and high lake levels for the major lakes and rivers are expected to continue throughout July and into August.