Good Morning! 51F @ 6:45AM. Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers this afternoon. Thunder possible. High 52F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.

Good question about the dam failure, Don. A satellite view would indicate that most of downtown Oroville would be washed away.
But looking at a topographic map, it's not so clear cut. The river canyon is cut pretty deeply on the west side of the dam and would tend to contain the water as it moved west. But the dam is holding back a 700' wall of water and there's lots of it, so it still could very well wipe out the whole town. The emergency spillway on the east side of the dam along Miner's Ranch Road is much less populated, and the flow would be much, much less as the water would rise gradually, but there are still quite a few properties there that could be in danger of flooding. The water is up another 7' this morning even though the outflow has been increased to 65,038 CFS. That's because
inflows are still very high, 144,940 CFS this morning, having dropped from a peak of 190,435 CFS at 7PM yesterday. I would be very surprised if we didn't get to see what gets wet below the emergency spillway tonight, and for sure on Saturday.
The latest from KRCR TV:
"The Butte County Sheriff's office said Thursday night, based on the information received from DWR (Department of Water Resources), there is no imminent or expected threat to public safety or the integrity of Oroville Dam.
However, residents in Butte County communities along the Feather River should use this time to prepare in the event an evacuation warning is issued. Get ready, gather important items, and consider where you and your family may go if an evacuation warning is issued."
Things aren't looking great for the spillway, either this morning. The blown out east side is widening under the increased flows, and also spreading downhill. What's not clear from the photo is if it's also working its way up hill, but other photos from the scene show crews are outside watching. Saturday might be a good day to take that motorcycle ride over to the dam to do some site seeing, but I bet they've got the roads south of the dam closed off...
More headlight tinkering on the van today, along with a trip into town for supplies...
TGIF gang!