The latest Rio Grande runoff numbers, out this morning (Fri. 5/8) are delightfully boring. The Natural Resources Conservation Service is forecasting flows just a bit below average on the Rio Grande this year.

"There's no flood or famine," said Wayne Sleep, a member of the NRCS snow team.

At Otowi, the key gauge for measuring the Rio Grande through New Mexico, Sleep and his colleagues are forecasting 86 percent of normal flow, essentially the same as the forecast a month ago.

We still have pretty substantial drought conditions in the southern part of the state, according to the federal drought mitigation folks, but the northern mountains, which feed our rivers, largely escaped the worst of this year's La Nina conditions.