Chart tracking the Aug. 31–Sept. 7, 2026 Abiquiu release pulse downstream through six Rio Chama and Rio Grande gages. Flow above baseline increases sharply at Otowi, partly because of storm runoff, then declines from Cochiti through Albuquerque; the pulse reaches Central Avenue early Sept. 4.

Visualizing the pulse flow (click on the image to embiggen).

Hitting “reload” and keeping track of six open browser tabs was making my head hurt – this helped.

Back story here via Paul Tashjian, written as the pulse flow was getting underway:

As I write, action is underfoot to combine water from the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and Audubon for a release of water into our parched Rio Grande. The hope is to water the riverbed for four days through Albuquerque, soak the aquifer, and provide an “irrigation” to our stressed and dying bosque forest. At the same time, a robust monitoring program has been put in place to understand groundwater response, the seepage rate, characteristics of the watering, and the response of the trees themselves. This monitoring effort will provide invaluable insights to water managers about how we may solve problems of this nature in the future.