To get ready for the winter flood season, TVA begins releasing water from tributary storage reservoirs at a faster rate following Labor Day weekend. This allows TVA to put the stored water to good use during September and October—which are typically hot, dry months—by generating electricity to power air conditioners and supplementing flows for water quality and navigation.

Main-river reservoirs don’t fluctuate nearly as much as the tributaries because of their original design and navigation requirements. Their drawdowns are staggered from July through the end of the year to ensure that the released water can be used efficiently, generating electricity as it runs through the turbines at as many as 9 dams downstream. The seasonal drawdown begins after the 4th of July weekend on Kentucky Reservoir; following the Labor Day weekend on Chickamauga, Guntersville, Wheeler, and Pickwick; and on November 1 on Fort Loudoun and Watts Bar.

Reservoirs are typically lowered at least to winter flood-guide levels by January 1 each year. During the flood season, these levels may fall below flood guide levels by several feet to satisfy other operating objectives, but flood guide levels will only be exceeded during flood control operations. As soon as the downstream floodwaters begin to recede, the reservoirs are lowered at a controlled rate to recover flood storage space for future storms. If enough water can't be released through the turbines, it is sometimes necessary to let additional water flow through sluiceways or over spillways to speed up the drawdown and regain the storage space needed for future rains.

Aggressive filling of tributary reservoirs to summer levels begins in mid-March, when the chance of flood-producing storms, prolonged wet periods, and multi-storm sequences begins to decline. Main-river reservoirs are kept at lower levels until near the end of the flood season — late April or early May — because flood storage space in these reservoirs is so limited. (For this same reason, however, main-river reservoirs fill more quickly than tributary reservoirs.)

A small amount of flood storage capacity is reserved in all reservoirs through the summer months as a protection against flood-producing storms over limited areas.

How TVA Flattens a Flood