Runoff Forecast Continues To Be Below Average

January runoff in the Missouri River Basin above Sioux City was 0.7 million acre-feet, 92 percent of average. Runoff was near or below average for most of the Missouri River Basin, and most of the upper basin had below-normal precipitation.

“Runoff into the reservoir system was below average for the month of January and conditions across the basin remain dry,” said John Remus, chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. “With the below-average plains and mountain snowpack we are forecasting a below- average runoff year for the basin.”

The 2025 calendar year runoff forecast above Sioux City is 20.6 MAF, 80 percent of average. The runoff forecast is based on current soil moisture conditions, plains snowpack, mountain snowpack and long-term precipitation and temperature outlooks.