River temperatures on the Columbia

At our annual Operations workshop we discussed sources of river temperature. We've traditionally focused on water temperature as the trigger for wearing our various types of cold water gear. We need to be thinking beyond just the determination of when we need to be in our dry suits to a major consideration in our risk management. Today the Columbia is 5.4 ºC = 41.72 ºF below Bonneville Dam near Warrendale, Oregon. We need to be asking ourselves what additional risks come at river temperatures of 40ºF, and not just for surface operations - what about doing work on local piers and docks?

There are a number of sources of river temperature data. For the Columbia I use:

http://or.water.usgs.gov/projs_dir/pn307.tdg/tables/WRNO.html

This data is in ºC so you can use this conversion chart:



Please note, for surface operations the river temperature is determined by the OIC of Station Portland, if it is near to the 50ºF or 60ºF points please err on the side of caution and/or check in with Station. Also remember that Columbia and Willamette temperatures can differ significantly.